Since the 1990s, Irish farmers have been working to save corncrake populations, a critically endangered species. Older farmers feel nostalgic for their childhood years when they hear the bird’s call.
“Older people still talk about coming home from dances in summer nights and hearing the corncrakes calling from the fields all around them… It’s sad that many young people have never heard it,” Anita Donaghy, assistant head of conservation at Birdwatch Ireland, said.
In parts of Asia and Eastern Europe, the species has evolved to live in the loose grass and weeds of natural floodplains, and their numbers are still strong. But in Western Europe, the bird also adapted to the tall grass meadows and stinging nettles, and lives in traditional meadows and field margins. Due to farming, the bird’s natural habitat was nearly destroyed, before efforts were made to preserve the species.
Once the Belmullet corncrake population fell to four calling males; due to the aid of farmers, in 2021 the population rose to 38 counted corncrakes.
“I remember in the 1970s, this area was full of corncrakes. Then farmers started mowing grass earlier, and that ruined it, until the last corncrake in this area was right here, on this land. The corncrake was nearly wiped out here. And if he is, we’ll never get him back again,” Patrick Mangan, 57, farmer and corncrake enthusiast, stated.
A recently founded state program, Corncake Life, works with farmers to preserve and recreate the meadows corncrakes use to breed and nest in. For up to €304 per acre annually, farmers must plant an area of their land with plants that provide shelter for breeding corncrakes. The rest of the plain is, preferably, turned back into natural meadow, without the use of artificial fertilizer and weed killer.
The program was founded 18 months ago with 50 farmers from the Atlantic coastal countries of Donegal, Galway and Maya. For five years, seventy-five percent of Corncrake Life’s initial budget of 5.9 million euros came from the European Union.
Link to article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659884014056x158054312237690940/Irish%20Farmers%20Help%20Save%20a%20Bird%20Whose%20Calls%20Used%20to%20Herald%20Summer%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
“Older people still talk about coming home from dances in summer nights and hearing the corncrakes calling from the fields all around them… It’s sad that many young people have never heard it,” Anita Donaghy, assistant head of conservation at Birdwatch Ireland, said.
In parts of Asia and Eastern Europe, the species has evolved to live in the loose grass and weeds of natural floodplains, and their numbers are still strong. But in Western Europe, the bird also adapted to the tall grass meadows and stinging nettles, and lives in traditional meadows and field margins. Due to farming, the bird’s natural habitat was nearly destroyed, before efforts were made to preserve the species.
Once the Belmullet corncrake population fell to four calling males; due to the aid of farmers, in 2021 the population rose to 38 counted corncrakes.
“I remember in the 1970s, this area was full of corncrakes. Then farmers started mowing grass earlier, and that ruined it, until the last corncrake in this area was right here, on this land. The corncrake was nearly wiped out here. And if he is, we’ll never get him back again,” Patrick Mangan, 57, farmer and corncrake enthusiast, stated.
A recently founded state program, Corncake Life, works with farmers to preserve and recreate the meadows corncrakes use to breed and nest in. For up to €304 per acre annually, farmers must plant an area of their land with plants that provide shelter for breeding corncrakes. The rest of the plain is, preferably, turned back into natural meadow, without the use of artificial fertilizer and weed killer.
The program was founded 18 months ago with 50 farmers from the Atlantic coastal countries of Donegal, Galway and Maya. For five years, seventy-five percent of Corncrake Life’s initial budget of 5.9 million euros came from the European Union.
Link to article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659884014056x158054312237690940/Irish%20Farmers%20Help%20Save%20a%20Bird%20Whose%20Calls%20Used%20to%20Herald%20Summer%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
