NATIVE GREY partridge will be seen for the first time in more than 50 years in north Co Dublin following the release of a number of birds there yesterday as part of a five-year reintroduction plan.
The partridge, released from a pen on a farm near Oldtown, Dublin, are from the highly successful project in Boora, Co Offaly. A programme there saved the last 22 birds in Ireland from extinction.
Now, there are more than 900 birds there and, using the techniques which proved so successful in Offaly, the Irish Grey Partridge Conservation Trust hopes to re-establish a viable population in Fingal.
Working with Fingal County Council and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and local farmers, John Walsh of the partridge conservation trust said the Boora project had worked and the conservation strategy was moving to a new phase in Dublin.
The plan, which has the backing of the National Association of Regional Game Councils and is funded by Fingal Leader partnership, will showcase how intensive farming and wildlife can be compatible.
The project will focus on the creation of suitable habitats within three intensive cereal farms in the Oldtown area where the 70 birds from Boora were released.
A series of 3-4m-wide habitat strips over the three farms will stretch out over 10km. These strips will be along the margins
of the headlands to provide habitat for the birds and other wildlife.
Hans Visser, biodiversity officer with Fingal County Council, said he hoped the pilot project would demonstrate to other farmers in Fingal what could be done for wildlife conservation in an easy and straightforward way.
“A narrow habitat strip in the least productive part of the field will have a minimal impact on farm income, while being of great benefit to farmland wildlife,” he said.
Minister for Heritage Jimmy Deenihan, who attended the release, said the project clearly showed how farming practices
in the 21st century could collaborate with nature conservation agencies to the betterment of wildlife.