Client: National Parks and Wildlife Service

This project was commissioned as a pilot survey of NPWS woodland properties and had a remit of six properties in the South Western NPWS region: Killarney National Park (which, for practical purposes, was divided into 41 survey sites), Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve, Derrynafulla, Uragh Wood Nature Reserve, Knockomagh Wood Nature Reserve and St Gobnet’s Wood.  In the summer of 2023, woodland habitat at each of these properties was surveyed and mapped, the area surveyed totalling 2602.3 ha. Pressures and threats were identified and necessary site-level conservation measures were prescribed. The national monitoring network for habitats listed under Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive was expanded during this survey with monitoring stops established at seven sites for 91A0 Old oak woodland and two sites for 91E0 Alluvial woodlands*. The broad conservation value of each site surveyed was also calculated, using an adaptation of the methodology used in the National Survey of Native Woodlands 2003-2008. This project also included a field-trial of a methodology for identifying old-growth forest stands in Ireland using recently published guidelines and assessed the impact of ash dieback disease on these woodlands by assessing a subjective sample of mature Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) trees from across the range of sites.