The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Grassroots battle to save the Maharees from coastal erosion
AFTER severe storms threatened to cut off the outermost end of the Maharees in the winter of 2015 – 2016 the community is now working together to save the fragile finger of sandy land that they call home from further destruction by man and nature.
It is an enormous undertaking that requires no small amount of optimism but members of the Maharees Conservation Association are confident that, if they can’t turn back the tide, they can at least slow its advance by taking action to prevent erosion and by raising awareness of the critical importance of protecting the sand dunes that are vital to the survival of the Maharees tombolo.
The simplest and possibly the most effective weapon at their disposal is marram grass – the familiar long, wiry grass that grows abundantly on sand dunes and binds them together with its long, spreading roots. On Thursday last this defence was deployed as pupils from Scoil Nua an Leith Triúigh pitched in with members of the Conservation Association, farmers, environmentalists and local residents to transplant marram grass into the bare sides of sand dunes that had been blown apart by storms.
The work was carried out at Maharabeg Cut under a scorching sun with the calm water of Brandon Bay forming a tranquil backdrop. It could hardly have been more different to the scene at exactly the same location a year and a half ago when waves tore into the dunes and gales blasted sand inland where it accumulated in mounds that made the roads impassable at times, leaving residents at the outer end of the Maharees fearful for what might happen if an ambulance or fire brigade had to be called to an emergency.
Following those storms, a public meeting was held at which locals voiced concerns for the long term future of their community. One of the speakers at the meeting was Dr Eugene Farrell, a lecturer in coastal science at NUIG and a frequent visitor to the Maharees, who happened to be doing research in the area at the time. He was able to explain why the Maharees was so vulnerable to erosion and the kind of measures that could be taken to address the problem. It was a hugely valuable input that helped set the embattled community on a path towards formulating a broad, scientifically-based strategy for keeping the sea from their doors.
Arising out of the public meeting the Maharees Conservation Association was formed in February 2016 and, in consultation with local residents, farmers, fishermen, holidaymakers and others, they set about formulating an action plan. The primary aim of this plan is the obvious need to protect the Maharees from erosion but it also includes generating awareness among stakeholders such as Kerry County Council, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), locals and visitors of the various issues and the need to work together to solve the common problem
These issues are diverse: the NPWS is charged with protecting the Maharees as a unique and vitally important ecological area that is zoned as a Special Area of Conservation, the Council has to maintain roads and domestic services such as water and sewerage, farmers want to protect their land, residents want to continue to live in an area threatened by the sea, holidaymakers want to be able to enjoy the sea and the countryside.
Some of these ‘wants’ run contrary to each other and local farmers Patrick Browne and Tom Scanlon, who were helping to transplant marram grass last Thursday, were able to provide a telling example. The two men saw 19 metres of commonage at Maharabeg lost to the sea during Storm Darwin in 2014 and every year they witness the impact of ongoing erosion in the Maharees. But the sea isn’t the only problem, according to Patrick who has also seen the destruction caused by quad bike daredevils performing ‘wall of death’ stunts on the dunes. “You’d even see parents stopping their cars in the summer to let their children out to go ‘body boarding’ on the dunes and that causes no end of damage,” he said.
Addressing problems such as this is central to the strategy being put in place by the Maharees Conservation Association who recognise the importance of tourism to the local economy but also see the damage done when visitors converge on this highly sensitive area of huge ecological importance and extraordinary beauty.
“We welcome tourists to the area and we are trying to provide facilities for them and suggest ways in which they can help us protect it,” said association member Martha Farrell. The kind of facilities the association has in mind include car parks so that people don’t have to park on dunes, tearing up the grass and exposing sand that soon blows away in the wind. Walkways are needed so that visitors can experience the beauty of the sand dunes without damaging them; more durable beach access points are needed. Other potential solutions include constructing groynes (breakwaters) to help build up the level of beaches to check erosion; ‘hard’ defences such as rock armour may be needed in some areas. The problem is that providing these facilities demands a lot of investment and money is scarce.
However, the association does have the support of Kerry County Council and that offers hope. The council has provided chestnut fencing to restrict access to the dunes and slow the movement of sand. The council’s area engineer Colm Nagle and coastal protection engineer Gerry Riordan are hugely supportive of local conservation efforts as is the council’s biodiversity officer Cathy Fisher, who was in the Maharees last Thursday to see the marram grass transplanting project in action. Frank McMahon and Philip Buckley of the NPWS are a huge help as is wildlife biology lecturer Geraldine Twamley Stein of ITT. Dr Eugene Farrell is currently conducting a study of the forces driving erosion in the Maharees. An Taisce coastal officer Susan Vickers was also there to help last Thursday; “she showed us how to plant marram grass and now we can’t stop,” says Martha.
It all helps, yet the task is enormous and, with the land eroding at a rate of a metre a year, time is not on the side of the Maharees.
“The community is done and dusted if the dune system isn’t stabilised,” Dr Farrell told Thursday’s marram grass planters as they stood at the rim of a crater that had once been a sand dune on Maharabeg beach. But he isn’t working without hope of success. The project to combat erosion that started a year and a half ago is already having a positive impact, he says.
The Kerry County Council/OPW funded study now being undertaken by Dr Farrell, along with three other NUIG staff and nine postgraduate students involves monitoring the height and direction of waves and currents in Brandon Bay as well as analysing sand and sediment samples along 15km of beach, from Fermoyle to the Maharees
The aim is to understand the response and recovery of the beach and dune system to winter storms. “We need data, then we can do climate change models and project what will happen to the shoreline over time,” he says.
Given that the Maharees has lost 75 metres of coastline over the last 115 years and with climate change accelerating the rate of erosion those projections could make uncomfortable reading, but Dr Farrell remains optimistic about the future of the Maharees.
The conservation work now underway is “a great template of a community taking responsibility and using state bodies to help them – it’s all very positive,” he says. But he adds a word of caution: “the stakeholders have to stay involved”.