Anja Murray: The Burren in bloom — home to a wealth of wildflowers and butterflies
In An Biodiversity County The Burren Clare 'ark' — Of
This past weekend, to celebrate ‘International Day for Biodiversity’, I was lucky to do something that I had wanted to do for years: visit the Burren in County Clare during the month of May.
Because the rocky limestone terrain gets so dry in summer, many of the flowering plants that grow in this unique place have to flower and set seed early in the year, before the drought-like conditions in high summer get the better of them.
I was awed by the strikingly intense blue of the Spring gentians — a plant with an Arctic-Alpine distribution and one of the most iconic of Burren wildflowers.
Nearby I got to wonder at the dense-flowered orchid — a species normally found around the Mediterranean that is native also in the Burren.
I was excited to see a few bee orchids, whose flowers imitate a fly in order to entice passing flies to land in the hope of finding a mate, but instead end up pollinating this delicate little orchid.
I got to admire the gorgeous big flowers of mountain avens growing bountifully from stark grey limestone pavement. Bloody crane’s bill, another Arctic-Alpine plant, wooed me with its big, startlingly pink flowers.
These botanical oddities have fascinated naturalists for centuries. Nowhere else do Arctic and Alpine species grow alongside flowering plants normally only found in the Mediterranean, sharing habitat amid the clints and grykes of the dramatic limestone pavement.
I have never seen the likes of the orchids growing in abundance. Of the 27 orchid species that occur in Ireland, 22 are found in the Burren.
‘Boireann’ means ‘rocky place’ in Irish. It’s a fitting name for this region of dramatically sweeping expanses of exposed limestone bedrock, high limestone hills, and unique farming methods adapted to the unusual characteristics of the terrain.
Transhumance is a term I remember from school-level geography, where cows, goats or sheep are moved to summer pastures in mountainous areas when the weather warms and the grasses begin to grow on upland pastures.
But in the Burren, this approach is reversed. Cattle are brought to higher pastures in autumn, where the limestone holds onto the heat and cattle are comfortable through the winter months.
‘Winterage’ is a unique part of Ireland’s cultural heritage and has also been key to the survival of the incredible wild flowers of the Burren, which are free to grow through the spring and summer without being all eaten off by cows.
In this way, grazing livestock and wildflowers alternate in a seasonal cycle that has been in place for thousands of years.
Not only do the rare and unusual plants thrive in Burren, but relatively common wildflowers grow abundantly too.
Primroses, cowslips and dainty little wild violets are everywhere, boosted by the long growing season. The abundance and variety of wildflowers, sedges, and different wild grasses in turn support many butterflies, moths, bees and other invertebrates who depend on these flowering plants to complete their own life cycles.
So over the weekend I also saw a wealth of butterflies too. Some have very specific habitat requirements, needing particular combinations of light and shade, warmth, shelter, a variety of grasses and particular larval food plants for the young.
I saw beautiful ‘wood white’ with its powdery white body and wings, one of Ireland’s rarest butterflies. I was stunned at the exquisite patterning on the wings of the ‘marsh fritillary’ butterfly, Ireland’s only legally protected butterfly species. I was amazed by the intricately pattered ‘pearl-bordered fritillary’ which has ‘pearls’ marking the underside of its wings and lives only in the particular conditions in The Burren.
Because the traditional winter grazing is such an intrinsic part of our cultural heritage, and crucial for maintaining the biodiversity of the Burren, innovative approaches have been developed to maintain and support these farming practices here.
Where the traditional winterage grazing is discontinued, under-grazing of upland areas results in the encroachment of hazel.
Oceanic hazel woodlands are a wonderful habitat in their own right, although hazel encroaching over such species-rich grasslands, filled with rarities, is a conservation challenge, turning the special winterage grazing pasture into something different, at the expense of the rare plants so loved and celebrated of the Burren. In turn, the diversity and abundance of butterflies, moths and bees, among others, diminishes in response.
Multiple challenges pose a threat to the continuation of the rich biodiversity here. Between 1970 and 2000, there was a 73% increase in the stocking levels of cattle in the Burren, sustained by a jump in the use of fertilisers. The impact of this on the Burren’s natural environment and built heritage was significant.
The number of people employed in agriculture also dropped by half in the same time period. In tandem with the increasing intensity, winterage grazing practices were being abandoned.
In response, a number of pieces of ecological, sociological and agricultural research took place in the Burren during the early 2000s, resulting in the development of innovative new conservation approaches of the ‘Burren Life Programme’.
Many elements have made the programme such a resounding success, including a principle of locally developed and targeted agricultural supports which celebrate local people, place and tradition.
‘Results based’ payments are available to participating farmers, who are paid according to the habitat quality of each field in the scheme. Payments for ‘results’ are calculated by multiplying the field score by the field size by a given rate— thus higher scores mean bigger payments.
This gives the farmer the flexibility to choose the actions that are most suited to their land and their needs, on a qualitative rather than prescriptive basis.
Today, the Burren Life Programme is often cited as a model for how local Agri-Environment support schemes everywhere should work.
The Burren is often described as one of the jewels in the crown of Irish biodiversity. It seems an appropriate birthplace for a novel approach to agri–environment supports that have huge potential to save much of Ireland’s farmland biodiversity.
The results-based scheme developed by Burren Life is now being rolled out in other pilot programmes in different parts of Ireland, including ‘Locally Led Agri-Environment Schemes’ in regions with hen harriers and freshwater pearl mussels.
The results-based approach offers hope for successful conservation measures that work better for both farmers and for biodiversity.
The Burren has also been described as an 'ark of biodiversity' — it carries the seeds of a recipe for recovery for sensitive and declining farmland habitats everywhere.