29.03.2004 -- Heritage specialist says urgent action required

1. Biological monitoring

Our climate is changing, both through natural cyclic processes and increasingly because of the impact of man's activities on the environment. Avarage temperatures are on the rise resulting in an influx of previously unrecorded species into Ireland from the south. Various species of plants, insects, and birds are on the move, including the potentially deadly Anopheles mosquito, which carries malaria. Little egrets, small, white herons from the continent once considered rare vagrants this far north, now overwinter and breed on the coast of West Cork. These species would not have survived Irish winters in years gone by, but are now happily setting up home here.

Monitoring the influx of these indicator species provides invaluable data on the extent and rate of global climate change and the potential impact it is having both on native wildlife and on ourselves.

Mr Cook suggests that a variety of conditions make Reenascreena an ideal monitoring post for these indicator species and the RCAG committee intend to investigate the proposal further.

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