Hare's Corner initiative benefits more than the lovely hare
Distribution Planting Irish Corner Clarecastle Oak — Trust: Seed Whitethorn, Group Initiative Munity The And Savers Birch, Hare's Burrenbeo Corner Including Orchard Trees; Hazel, And Alder Hare's For Trees
The unique Burren area of County Clare continues to show the way when it comes to nature-friendly farming in keeping with age-old traditions, setting an example for many other places to follow.
Two years ago, the quaintly-named Hare’s Corner biodiversity initiative was launched by Burrenbeo Trust, a landscape charity dedicated to connecting people with their native places and their role in caring for them.
The hare’s corner idea continues a custom from days long gone whereby farmers set aside a section of poor-quality land for wild animals and for growing wildflowers, plants, and trees.
It was a practice that disappeared, like many others, with the onset of intensive farming, but there’s clearly an appetite for its restoration as more than 270 new hare’s corners have been created in the Burren in just two years.
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They comprise 90 mini-woodlands with more than 10,000 native trees, including the rare Burren pine tree; 50 new ponds for biodiversity; 100 new mini-orchards, and close to 30 landowners availing of a Plan for Nature site visit and report.
The next phase of the project, which is supported by State bodies and the EU, is being planned, at present.
Water is critical to all of this. Long ago, we remember how, around this time of year, every pond seemed to be full of frog spawn, looking like large clumps of black-spotted jelly.
As around 50% of wetlands have disappeared nationally due to land reclamation, industrial peat extraction, and pollution, it’s only natural that the Clare plan should be encouraging landowners to have ponds in their hare’s corners.
All of which, for instance, benefits frogs which breed around February and March. No doubt, the evidence is now there to be seen in some of the aforementioned ponds.
Tadpoles grow in April and May and then move on to become froglets before leaving ponds in June, or July. Road kill, by the way, continues to be a factor in frog mortality, with many being killed as they make their way to spawning ponds.
Ponds can also be home to insects, newts and dragonflies and a host of native plants can be found in them, like water lilies and crowfoot. Some plants provide hiding places for young frogs.
Let’s finish with the hare. The ancient landscape of the Burren is peppered with weather-beaten monuments, some relics of the Celtic era. The Celts respected the hare as an animal with supernatural powers that should not be harmed.
In modern times, the treatment of the hare has aroused much controversy, but the fact that a successful, 21st-century initiative is named after this lovely creature surely reflects ongoing regard for it.