burren LIFE

Progress Achieved So Far

Building Relationships

Since its establishment good progress has been made in getting the Project up and running. Highly successful public meetings have taken place with farmers, over 80 initial farm visits and scoping questionnaires were undertaken in the process to short list farms. This work included farm walks and various engagements with local farm planners. Considerable time and effort has also gone into building a strong relationship with the farming community in the Burren, the selection of LIFE farms, and the collection of baseline habitat data from these farms for reference purposes. The significance of this Project for the future of the Burren, and for their own future opportunities, has been actively conveyed to the farming community. It is clear that the farming community want to be active role-players within the BurrenLIFE Project going forward over the next number of years. Other significant achievements in the start-up phase included the recruitment of a highly regarded Project Team and the establishment of fully functional Project office.

Initial ‘LIFE Farms’ Selected

Farm liaison and site selection activities over the summer months resulted in the selection of the initial batch of 12 ‘LIFE Farms’. Detailed farm management plans and agreements have been drawn up on some 1, 100 ha of SAC lands and a total area of some 2, 600 ha of Burren farm land. Work will commence this winter on the 12 LIFE farms on restoration work of damaged areas, enhancing livestock management facilities, targeted scrub removal and most importantly the implementation of new grazing regimes through stock redeployment within the mapped managements units / habitats types on the farm. Detailed user friendly folders containing all the information generated by the farmers through working with thwe Project Team have been developed for each LIFE Farm. These will be living documents which will act as the base reference for all future work on the particular LIFE Farm and all information generated will be kept on file not only by the Project Team but also by the owner / manager of the LIFE Farm.

Cattle Back on Burren Winterage

Since early October many Burren farmers with access to winterage have had their livestock back on the high winterages. The Project has continued forage sampling work of winterage grasslands. The sampling strategy has been spatially extended to cover a wider variety of habitats on LIFE Farms and other site locations. These will in due course inform the profiling of the agricultural capacity of Burren Grasslands. The Project Team, with the assistance of Teagasc specialists, will continue the work to formulate appropriate supplementary feedstuff rations. As a result of this work it is hoped that that purchase and distribution of concentrate feedstuff to the initial batch of LIFE Farms will begin in January 2006.

Monitoring Work On ?LIFE Farms?

A major part of the Project?s work is to monitor the impacts that the changes to the current management practices of the ?LIFE Farms? have on the farm enterprise and the environment. Agricultural surveys based on Teagasc?s National Farm Survey model, are being used to assess impacts on farm income. Particular attention will be paid to the health and welfare of the livestock by condition scoring animals when going onto, when on, and when coming off the winterages. Checks will also be made on the effect of using specially formulated supplementary feedstuffs rather than silage. Where changes have been made to try to redress low grazing levels or scrub encroachment, detailed vegetation studies are being carried out to detect any changes in the quality of the flora.

Progress Towards Planned Activities

The Project is implementing an ambitious work programme for the next number of years. The main areas of progress against targets set for the past 12 months include:

Action No.	Project Achievements in 2005	Date Achieved
A.1	Compilation of Burren Land Use database Ongoing since June 2005	June 2005
A.2	Site Selection and Farmer Liaison Public meetings, 60 farm visits, briefings, etc – ongoing since March	March 2005
A.3	Baseline Survey of 2000ha of Project Sites Complete on approx. 1, 300 hectares – August 2005 and ongoing	August 2005
A.4	Farm Management Plans and Agreements (Contracts) Complete on 12 LIFE farms – work ongoing	November 2005
E.2	Project Website – www.burrenlife.com	November 2005
E.4	Educational Programme Educational work by Project members ongoing since April 2005 Heritage Education Programme Tender awarded in October 2005	October 2005
E.7	Project Reporting – 1st Year Progress Report delivered to the EC	September 2005
F.1	Establishment and operation of Advisory Groups Project Steering Committee established – January 2005 Project Advisory Group established – July 2005 Technical Advisory Group (Teagasc) established – April 2005	January 2005
F.2	Official Project Launch by Minister Dick Roche TD	July 2005
F.3	Employment of Project Team – full team in place March 2005	March 2005

Work Activities in 2006

The Project focus over the next number of months will be on the selected ‘LIFE Farms’. Work will commence this winter with the initial 12 ‘LIFE Farms’ on restoration work of damaged areas, on enhancing livestock management facilities, on targeted scrub removal and on the implementation of new grazing regimes through stock redeployment. Farmer liaison and site selection activities will also continue and new farm management plans and agreements will be completed on the remaining ‘LIFE Farms’ to be selected in 2006.