Satellite imagery to be used to pinpoint origins of Kerry gorse fires

The same kind of satellite technology used to pinpoint rushes on land put forward for farm payment grants, is to be employed in the investigation into illegal gorse fires which threatened the Killarney National Park recently.

Thousands of satellite images are consulted each year by Department of Agriculture officials to determine if land is being farmed.

If there is rush cover or furze and rock, then land is deemed ineligible for single farm payments.

Now satellite images are to be looked at to find out exactly where the fires originated which threatened homes, and the 25,000 acre Killarney National Park along with a large part of south Kerry, the senior garda involved in the investigation has confirmed.

The wild fires were lit in March and April when it is illegal to burn and images will be looked at as part of the assessment as to who owns and uses the land.

A joint agency grouping made up of gardaí, the Department of Agriculture as well as the National Parks and Wildlife Service , and the fire service in Kerry has been set up to investigate the fires which saw the army called in to help stifle the biggest blaze in the UNESCO biosphere reserve since 1984.

Supt Flor Murphy said the images from satellites will be used to assist in determining where and when the fires were started and who has rights to the land where the fires were started.

Llandowners and others using lands to graze sheep, horses and other animals are to be interviewed as part of what is an ongoing and widespread investigation, he said.

Gardaí do not believe the fires were started maliciously but rather were lit to clear land.

Under the Wildlife Acts, it is illegal to burn between March 1st and August 31st as the burning is extremely destructive to nesting birds, fawns and rare plant species.

The lands burned on the foothills of Mangerton in a buffer zone of the Killarney National Park are a haven for the meadow pipit the species which harbours the eggs of the increasingly rare cuckoo in the region.