Champions wanted to save our rivers
Local people willing to champion the region’s rivers and streams are sought following the large turnout for a meeting in Carrickmacross Workhouse to ratify the new community created vision for Dundalk Bay rivers.
Renowned angler Mr. Ken Whelan gave an inspirational talk, outlining how our waterways have been managed down through the years and the future challenges owing to the impact of climate change. With rising sea temperatures there will be more intense rainfall events in the autumn and winter and much reduced rainfall in spring and summer. This will have huge impacts on flow levels in our rivers and create great stress for our aquatic biodiversity. We therefore need to find measures of flood prevention rather than short term flood relief. The key will be to maintain our bogs and wetlands which act as sponges for excess water during intense rainfall events.
The way of the future is for communities to Adopt a Stream or Adopt a River so it is managed for extreme low water as well as high water. State bodies must lead the way with new innovative legislation to rebuild river catchments, bogs and wetlands through farm management and support for environmental stewardship within communities.
The supports for this approach is in place already with the new River Basin Management Plan and the establishment of the Local Authorities Waters and Communities office who are working with communities to take action to protect and enhance our local water bodies.
Dundalk Bay rivers (Fane, Glyde, Dee, Proules, Castletown, Kilcurley, Flurry, Big, White) communities are leading the way in this new approach. In the spring time this year, at meetings across the catchment, they created a vision for their rivers that was ratified at the meeting last evening. The Dundalk Bay communities would like top protect and improve the water quality of our rivers, lakes and coastal waters; protect and
improve habitats and biodiversity of our aquatic ecosystems and adjacent areas; learn more about our water environment and the role we can play in its protection and improvement; create water management environment and community that is more resilient to climate change and promote sustainable recreation and tourism along our waterways that provides benefits for the community, environment and local economy.
The next step is to identify a key group of river champions from within the community who will help drive this vision forward by working with local agencies such as Inland Fisheries Ireland, Local Authorities, EPA, National Parks and Wildlife Service and LAWCO to deliver on the actions the community have already identified are needed to make this vision happen.
Anyone would like to get involved in protecting our very precious water resources and help provide the pathway to recovery for all our rivers and lakes please do get in touch with Gretta McCarron at 085 808 5756 or gmccarron@lawco.ie