Ireland's Amazon in peril

Shortly before 5 a.m. on a misty May morning, a lone otter makes a sudden appearance darting along the bank, rippling the sedges. An undulating black line, he slips into the clear water and is gone, as suddenly and silently as he appeared. Meanwhile the birds are preparing for their dawn performance. First up is the wren. Pollardstown Fen, three kilometres north-east of Newbridge, Co Kildare and now covering some 220 hectares or about 550 acres, is as busy as it is peaceful. Once about three times larger than it is now, it has gradually been reduced by centuries of turf cutting and drainage, but it remains mysterious. Home to 159 species of moths and butterflies, including Ireland's first recordings of a cosmopterigid moth and of its cousin, Elachista triatomea, Pollardstown Fen proves there is rather more to Co Kildare than magnificent horses. It was also here in the fen in 1988 that the hoverfly Platycheirus amplus made its first appearance not only in Ireland, but in Europe.

The fen provides valuable hunting territory for foxes and badgers who choose not to settle here, however, as the conditions are too damp for their dens. The hares and pygmy shrews don't mind, though, nor do the maverick mink, the now-wild descendants of north American ancestors introduced to Ireland as part of a short-lived farming project in the 1950s.

About 300 metres further up the fen water, a flurry of white confirms the mute swans are preparing for the day. Still no sun, but the light is increasing. David Cabot, ornithologist and author of Ireland (1999), a definitive natural history, first came here as a Trinity College undergraduate in 1961. He identifies the various warblers: the chiff chaff, the sedge warbler and a particularly persistent character, the grasshopper warbler, whose song Cabot compares to "the sound of an angler's reel being wound in". For Cabot, Pollardstown Fen, with its dramatic covering of Cladium or saw sedge, is unique.

"This is what our landscape looked like for several hundred generations. This fen was formed between 9,000 and 11,000 years ago. It is a witness, part of our cultural history. You could say it's Ireland's Amazon. If it is lost or damaged in any way, it's our tragedy."

Late the previous night, after a long delay clearing a rotting tree which had fallen across the width of the Milltown feeder, our boat had moved on, led towards the fen by a solitary swan. Bats flew towards us startled by the boat's headlights as we passed under a low bridge.

Despite the flotilla of litter, bottles, cans and plastic bags, the fenwater has a surreal clarity even in the dark. The night silence, broken only by the rasping sound of snipe, ends abruptly once the birds find their voices at dawn.

Once the sun rises, it is easier to locate some of the 36 calcium-rich springs which ensure that the fen has not yet dried out and become a raised bog. The improved light also makes it easier to spot the frogs and newts which live here, while the pond skaters appear to be dancing on the glass of the still water. Spider webs testify to the presence of 58 species. Three orange tip butterflies appear, flying in formation, while a speckled wood butterfly settles on the nearby great willowherb. Pollardstown Fen has faced dangers in the past. In the 1960s, drainage was begun to convert part of it into agricultural land. In 1981, however, the Wildlife Service began purchasing part of the fen which has since regenerated. Two areas of intact fen were purchased by the Office of Public Works (OPW) from Bord na Mona in 1981. Only in 1986 was the fen declared a national nature reserve. However, it has been a RAMSAR site, an internationally protected fenland, since 1971, according to a treaty which Ireland has signed. It is also one of the European biogenetic reserves of the Council of Europe, as well as being a national heritage area and proposed special area of conservation. According to wildlife conservation officer Val Swan: "Botanists and those with an interest in natural history have been coming here for years, and increasingly the general public, Kildare people themselves, are discovering the wonders of it." All of this makes it difficult to understand why concerned environmentalists are having to appeal to Brussels to save it.

Kildare County Council, and indeed the State itself, are going ahead with the building of the long-disputed, 10.35 km Kildare by-pass. This involves cutting into the water table and, with it, the draining of the Curragh aquifer - the largest and most important gravel aquifer in Ireland, a geological phenomenon and the fen's major water source. It will affect the fen and, as the main supply of water for the Grand Canal, could possibly affect the canal system.

First raised in 1982, the bypass route has proved contentious. No one is denying Kildare needs the by-pass (the cost of which was estimated at £65 million in 1998), but the road design as planned will not solve the traffic problem. It will merely transfer the existing gridlock a few miles up the road to Monasterevin. The National Stud has proved central in the locating of the road which will run through its land. According to John Clarke, chief executive of the National Stud since 1983, the unusually deep incutting of the road is to protect the horses from traffic noise. "Horses are very sensitive," he explains. Asked for annual visitor figures for the stud, as well as the Japanese and St Fiacra's gardens, he says "between 130,000 and 140,000".

Asked about the environmental impact, he says: "The fen is not my concern, the stud is". Clarke also points out that only one man has objected to the bypass. The Irish Times has already spoken with Percival Podger, a sheep farmer on the Curragh, who has consistently argued the environmental implications of the road construction methods. Clarke seems surprised to learn that An Taisce lodged a formal complaint to the European Commission.

Kildare County Council is confident the by-pass is going ahead. Asked about the environmental implications, resident project engineer Peter Thorne says: "I am not qualified to discuss environmental issues. I'm here to build a road." Despite the EU Commission withholding 75 per cent funding until it's satisfied that the fen won't be damaged, construction tenders are being assessed and some work is continuing.

Stating the case to the European Commission just over two years ago, Tony Lowes of An Taisce quoted the Kildare senior planner's report which stressed de-watering of the Curragh Aquifer could seriously affect Pollardstown Fen. "The Curragh and the fen, both of which are unique and cannot be replicated, must be regarded as of much greater importance than the national stud which is manmade and can be re-located." An Taisce also supplied a copy to Europe of the 1993 OPW report which stated that 5.5 million gallons of water a day would be drained by the incut proposal.

As a result of the EU Commission's subsequent questions, Kildare County Council and the National Roads Authority came up with new proposals which have resulted in the current, expensive method of using a plastic lining. Dutch experts who have successfully used similar geo-engineering procedures in the Netherlands have stressed that there they were working with fine silts and clays. The limestone topography of Kildare offers a complex set of very different problems, and there is no room for error when dealing with a natural resource such as the Curragh aquifer. The riches of the Pollardstown Fen are many and varied. Its status as an area of ecological wealth has been internationally recognised. Protected in theory, in reality this ancient Irish paradise is neglected and under threat, the impact of which can only be guessed at. Despite its five nature reserve designations, Pollardstown Fen could well become another tragic national embarrassment.