Forestry Network Newsletter

// FNN 170: the 1927 Rural Electrification Act and the Bantry 16

The 1927 Rural Electrification Act and the Bantry 16.
Joe Barry, sceptic turned profiteer? Windfarm Developer Taking Action to Recover €1.75 million. European Commission adopts an EU Forest Action Plan. Coillte Social and Environmental Panel, South West. Drombroe: A Bantry Water Garden Rediscovered.

"I was shocked to realize I had allowed myself to be seduced by the Forestry Service's promotion of its Sustainable Forestry Programme and was starting to believe there really was a movement towards a more enlightened role for forestry in Ireland. I was once again reminded just how entrenched are the views of professionals involved with "forestry" and the absolute conviction that broadleaves have no value."
Ian Wright, in this week's REPORT of Coillte South West's Social and Environmental Panel.

FOREST NETWORK NEWSLETTER
ISSUE NUMBER 170
24 JULY 2006
FREE BY EMAIL

"I was shocked to realize I had allowed myself to be seduced by the Forestry Service's promotion of its Sustainable Forestry Programme and was starting to believe there really was a movement towards a more enlightened role for forestry in Ireland. I was once again reminded just how entrenched are the views of professionals involved with "forestry" and the absolute conviction that broadleaves have no value."
Ian Wright, in this week's REPORT of Coillte South West's Social and Environmental Panel

1. INTRODUCTION
The 1927 Rural Electrification Act and the Bantry 16

2. LETTERS
Joe Barry, sceptic turned profiteer?

3. NEWS
Windfarm Developer Taking Action to Recover €1.75 million
European Commission adopts an EU Forest Action Plan

4. REPORT
Coillte Social and Environmental Panel, South West

5. ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Drombroe: A Bantry Water Garden Rediscovered

6. EVENTS

7. ABOUT US


Index

1. INTRODUCTION

The 1927 Rural Electrification Act and the Bantry 16

Today, Monday, a group of Bantry farmers will again be travelling up from West Cork to the High Court in Dublin.

The media has begun to focus on the farmers who are objecting to a 14km overhead line crossing their lands between Colomane and Ballylickey in West Cork, in some cases within 25m of houses. For health, safety and aesthetic reasons the residents want the power lines buried.

The residents were unaware during the planning process that any power lines were coming their way, much less that these lines would transgress their family farms. This is because the ESB will not do a plan for the electricity lines from wind turbines until planning has been granted for the turbines, so the project is split into two parts.

From a forestry perspective there is little difference between buried and overground lines, either option sterilises the ground for future forestry. But the case has thrown up some interesting assumptions about the value of semi-native broadleaf woodlands, assumptions we know are widely held by the authorities.

The ESB has phenomenal powers under the 1927 Rural Electrification legislation. At the same time, when a wind farm gets planning approval, the ESB is statutorily obliged to connect it to the grid "at least cost", according to the Commissioner for Energy regulation [CER]. The price paid for wind energy, less than that paid for electricity from gas, does not allow for the expense of burying the power lines, though this is the common practise in many European Countries.

The Netherlands, for example, has buried 100% of its cables, regardless of the size of the output. The UK, with 81% underground, in one year buried an additional 14,000 kilometres of cable, with Germany putting underground more than 52,000 kilometres in one year alone. The trend throughout Europe, except Ireland - is to bury power lines.

The combination of the ESB's powers and the CER's 'least cost' requirement is proving a deadly cocktail. It means that the ESB must use these powers to take the cheapest possible route, in this case around a Sitka spruce plantation, yet straight through old broadleaf woodlands at Drombroe in the Mealagh Valley.

Drombroe, part of the remains of the Earl of Bantry's once vast semi-native woodlands that included what is now the Glengarriff Nature Reserve, contains the remains of a unique water garden, still hosting specimen plants and trees [See Article of the Week: Drombroe: A Bantry Water Garden Rediscovered]. Abandoned in the 1930s on the death of the last of the Wilkinson family, it was targeted as a site for a reservoir to supplement Bantry's inadequate notoriously grim water supply and was the subject of a public enquiry in 1991 when a Compulsory Purchase Order [CPO] was refused after a contentious Public Hearing.

Now, a 50m wide swathe is to be cut through the middle of Drombroe.

There is no requirement for an EIA in such a case, because the powerline is below 220kv and less than 15km in length. The ESB is exempt from any requirement to apply for a felling license. There has been and will be no assessment of the environmental damage this development might cause.

The sad reality is that "least cost" means just that. In the case of a Sitka plantation, the ESB would have to compensate the owner for loss of a commercial crop, and probably repay grant aid. But in the case of semi-native woodlands, no such compensation is required. There is an assumption that there is no crop and hence no commercial value. No consideration is given to any non-timber' values, say amenity - or cultural history.

It is an assumption that is being severely challenged. Farmers have been guarding their gates and refusing access. The ESB has issued injunction proceedings against the farmers and threatened further proceedings, seeking damages of €15,000 per day while their machinery lies idle.

Bob Murnane and Denis O'Shea who own the wind turbines which require this line have issued proceedings seeking €1.75m in damages caused by delays to their project. But so far this has had no effect on the resolve of the landowners who are demanding that the powerline be put underground and re-routed around Drumbroe woods.

The 1927 Rural Electrification Act is not listed in the Habitats Directive Regulations. This is an infringement of the European Directive in itself. But without a suitable assessment, it is not even possible to see if the woodland contains habitats or species that are protected under the Directive. The historic evidence, however, would appear to classify the woodland as 'sensitive' - and so warrant further investigation.

Nigel Everet, the UK expert who researched Drombroe for his book 'Wild Gardens, The Lost Demises of Bantry Bay' [Haford Press, Cork, 2001] made it clear that the garden contains plants that require preservation as part of Ireland's cultural history. He writes:

Amid all this, many of Wilkinson's exotic trees and shrubs continue to prosper, protected from visitors and livestock by the formidable growth at the margins of the garden. Attempts, beginning in the 1980s, to clear part of the old gardens revealed surviving plants of extraordinary proportion, including a broad sweep of effectively naturalized exotics flourishing within a classic Cork landscape of mountain, field, lake and wood. A fascinating and profoundly picturesque combination of careful planting and long neglect had produced remarkably harmonious landscape full of variety of form, colour, light and shade, with no hint of polychromatic glare.

Among the fine specimens at Drombrow are the likely parents of the crinodendron and pieris plants sent to Ilnacullin. Exceptional rhododendrons include many examples of arboreum, with their distinctively thick leathery leaves and flowers of pink or mauve. There is a fine falconeire carrying its stiff leaves lined cinnamon coloured indumentum and great trusses of cream coloured flowers. Also exceptional is an example of 'sappho', one of the leading mid-Victorian hybrids with funnel-shaped flowers which are pure white with a reddish purple blotch in the throat overlaid with black. 'Sappho' often has a rather straggly habit and is generally heavily pruned, but the specimen at Drombroe has attained a form both dramatic and pleasing in its well-sheltered location.

Other notable specimens at Drombroe include two more Chilean evergreens, the fern Blechnum tabulare and Drimys winteri, a small tree with graceful branches of mahogany red, leaves that are bright green, leathery and fragrant and flowers that are creamy white with a scent of jasmine. There is also a specimen of the Himalayan Cornus capitata with its wide-spreading branches, yellow bracts, cruciform petals of white blossom in summer and strawberry like fruits in autumn.

The Drombroe water gardens were recently threaten by a scheme to flood the area around Droimbroe Lake to form a reservoir for the use of Bantry town. It is to be hoped that these gardens, certainly unique in Europe, will be preserved as a place of outstanding historical significance, beauty, and atmosphere.'


NOTE:
If you can support the efforts to protect this woodland, your efforts would be much appreciated by its owners and caretakers who have enjoyed the non-commercial value of these trees since they were children. You can find out more at
www.bantrypylonprotest.com

Index


2. LETTERS

Joe Barry, sceptic turned profiteer

Dear FNN;

Congratulations on your brilliant issue about the Moratorium on felling in catchments with the fresh water pear mussel margitiferra. I hope your readers will appreciate the implications of the challenge that the forestry of the last fifty years is about to cause.

It is of course quite unbelievable that the 'powers that are' continue to encourage and fund the planting of further poor quality conifers in the hills and uplands of your dear country.

Although I am, sadly, no longer resident in my beloved hills of Connemara, I continue to follow your forestry issues from here.

I was amazed, no, made speechless (which for me is not an easy thing) - to read in COFORD's Hardwood Matters that none less than Joe Barry is now ADVERTISING FOR HARDWOOD THINNINGS!. This is the gent that laughed at you NGOs calling for more broadleaves - who publicly ridiculed you all in the pages of the Irish Independent newspaper???

Now he is laughing all the way to the bank selling hardwood bags of firewood at a price Sitka growers can only have in dreams.

And 'feature logs'? Is he selling 'feature logs'? These are logs selected to ornament the empty hearths of the neauvaux-riche during the summer! 30 euro each piece!

Has he no shame?

Best wishes and keep up the good work!

Etienne

Etienne Cargo
etiennecargo@hotmail.com

Index



3. NEWS

Windfarm Developer Taking Action to Recover €1.75 million

Developer Bob Murnane has confirmed that sixteen people have been served with civil summonses seeking to recover 1.75 million in costs arising from the delay with the Ballybane Windfarm project near Bantry.

The figure, according to developer Bob Murnane, could have been one million more, considering the fact that the ESB has faced long delays in laying a 14 km power line form Colomane near Drimoleague, across country to a sub-station near Ballylickey.

Despite claims by two farming organisations that the ESB had not engaged in 'realistic discussions with a view to finding a workable and acceptable solution to the landowner's concerns, Mr. Murnane said the ESB had made four serious attempts to resolve the matter, but the company 'could not get agreement'.

The matter has been before the high court on a number of occasions and on May 23 last, the Court upheld the ESB's right to carry out the work on the behalf of Ballybane Windfarms Ltd., under the 1927 Rural Electrification Act.

On Thursday, June 29 last, the ESB trucks and diggers moved on site to commence work on laying the 14 km, 38 kv line, but they were stopped by local landowners who defied the High Court on the grounds of health and safety.

On Monday, July 10, five of the protestors were before the High Court as injunction proceedings were brought against Tadh Coughlan, John Keane, Mary Keane, Jackie Kingston and Susan Kingston.

Mr. Quentin Gargan - a local resident who is opposed to the overhead lines, issued a statement of their behalf saying 'The five are among 26 Bantry farmers who have been peacefully guarding their gates to prevent the ESB from putting up overhead lines across their land.'

Mr. Joe Burke, Chairperson of the Bantry Concerned Action group (BCAG) represented four of the landowners in the High Court and he argued that the wayleave notices had not been properly served. The Judge adjourned the case until Monday next, July 17 next, and in the meantime, Mr. Gargan said the protestors would continue to block access to their land.

MEP VISITS
To highlight the situation, Kathy Sinnott, MEP, attended a protest rally in the area on Monday. She said she suspected that the planning process 'has overlooked the fact that EU law requires screening to determine weather or not a power line needs an Environmental Impact Statement.'

The MEP said that 'It has been recognised in other countries that overhead power lines have an effect on health, and we just haven't acknowledged that here in Ireland. The ESB plans to run cables in many areas with small children and we can't accept that.'

'There is' she added, 'a growing need for alternative energy and this is going to require a lot of cables. If we don't make the decision now to put them underground, we will end up with a spider's web across some of Ireland's most scenic areas.'

According to Mr. Gargan, the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) has set a price for electricity from windfarms at 5.75 cents per unit, which is lower than the price paid for electricity from gas.

He maintained that the ESB should establish a higher price for electricity to fund placing the cables underground. As a case in point, he said offshore windfarms are getting a higher price for the electricity they produce.

At present, Mr. Gargan said the ESB is obliged to put the 14km line in at 'the least cost', which, by way of example, would mean going around a Coillte wood but going through an established forest, such as Drombrow.

One of the most vocal critics of the ESB and Bob Murnane's company, Ballybane Windfarm's Ltd., Mr. Joe Burke, repeated his assertion that he would rather go to jail than allow overhead lines through his land. He maintains that for health and safety reasons the power line should be laid underground.

He claims the ESB is in the middle of a 'PR nightmare' because 'the word had gone out on the airwaves, and people from all over the country have been calling to express their solidarity with us.'

The summons alleges wrongful interference, wrongful intimidation and wrongful conspiracy by the landowners, as well as watching, besetting, obstructing, interfering with, or intimidating or attempting to watch, beset, obstruct, interfere with or intimidate the Electricity Supply Board, its servants or agents in their entry upon lands at the townlands of Dromdoneen, Colomane East, Baurgorm, Cappanavar and Derryginnagh Middle.
© Southern Star

Index


European Commission adopts an EU Forest Action Plan

IP/06/785
Brussels, 15 June 2006

Today the European Commission has demonstrated its commitment to enhancing sustainable forest management by adopting an EU Forest Action Plan. The Action Plan builds on last year's report on the implementation of the EU Forestry Strategy and consequent conclusions by the Council. The Action Plan focuses on four main objectives: (1) to improve long-term competitiveness; (2) to improve and protect the environment; (3) to contribute to the quality of life; and (4) to foster coordination and communication. Eighteen key actions are proposed by the Commission to be implemented jointly with the Member States over a period of five years (2007–2011).

The Communication was presented by Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, in charge of agriculture and rural development, in association with Vice-President G?ºnter Verheugen, responsible for enterprise and industry, Commissioner for environment Stavros Dimas, Commissioner for energy Andris Piebalgs, and Commissioner for science and research Janez Potočnik. It is accompanied by a detailed report on the situation of forests and forestry in the EU and the process of preparation of the EU Forest Action Plan.

"This Action Plan is designed to make a major contribution to sustainable forest management. Our intention is to maintain and enhance the multifunctional role of European forests, underpinning better and sustained provision of goods and services to citizens," said Commissioner Fischer Boel.

Building on the Council Resolution of 15 December 1998 on a forestry strategy for the European Union, the Action Plan provides a framework for forest-related actions at EU and Member State level. It also serves as an instrument of coordination between EU actions and the forest policies of the Member States. Recognising the wide range of natural, social, economic and cultural conditions and differences in forest-ownership types in the EU, the Action Plan acknowledges the need for specific approaches and actions for different types of forests. It emphasises the important role played by forest-owners in the sustainable management of forests in the EU.

In order to improve long-term competitiveness of the forest sector, the Action Plan encourages innovation and research activities as well as training for forest-owners and forest workers. In line with the Biomass Action Plan and the EU Biofuels Strategy, it also proposes actions aimed at increasing the use of forest resources for energy production.

The Action Plan includes a number of specific steps to contribute to EU environmental objectives concerning climate change and biodiversity. It also addresses the protection of forests and proposes to work towards an improved European forest monitoring system.

To contribute to the quality of life, the Action Plan promotes the social and cultural dimensions of forests. It encourages environmental education, underlines the importance of the protective role of forests, and proposes to explore the potential of urban and peri-urban forests.

It proposes measures for more efficient cross-sectoral cooperation in order to balance economic, environmental and socio-cultural objectives in forest-related policies.

Forests currently cover 37.8% of the EU's land area. The forest area of the EU Member States has been steadily increasing over the last decades. According torecently published reports, total forest cover in the EU during the period of 2000-2005 has increased by 2.3 million ha. Forest cover greatly varies among the EU Member States ranging from respectively 73.9% and 66.9% of the total land area in Finland and Sweden, to 9.7% in Ireland, 10.8% in the Netherlands and 11.8% in Denmark. About 60% of the forests in the EU are in the ownership of roughly 15 million private forest-owners. Private forest holdings have an average size of 13 ha, but many privately-owned forests are less that 3 ha in size. Forestry and forest-based industries employ about 3.4 million people, and the EU produces about 20% of the world's industrial roundwood, being the second biggest producer after the USA. Despite these large quantities of production, the average annual volume of timber harvested in the EU is only slightly over 60% of the annual forest growth.

The Communication on an EU Forest Action Plan is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/fore/action_plan/index_en.htm
More information on EU forest-related policy and the EU Forest Action Plan is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/agriculture/fore/index_en.htm

Index



4. REPORT

Coillte Social and Environmental Panel, 5 July, 2006

Report of Coillte South West's Social and Environmental group at Graingers Saw Mill and Manch 5th July

Those present included;
Coillte representatives
IFA
Graingers
Society of Irish Foresters
NARGC—Regional Game Councils

In the morning we had a very instructive tour of Grainger's saw mill and CHP plant.

I was amazed to learn that none of the construction timber used in the Griffner/Coillte timber framed buildings is Irish, only the panel boards are home-grown. I had assumed that most of the Coillte saw log was going into this market however it seems that most is sold through the main builders providers for rafters but is not advertised as Irish grown.

I was shocked to realize I had allowed myself to be seduced by The Forestry Services promotion of its Sustainable forestry programme, (although very aware that its guidelines only apply to afforestation and not refor), and was starting to believe there really was a movement towards a more enlightened role for forestry in Ireland.

I was once again reminded just how entrenched are the views of professionals involved with "forestry" and the absolute conviction that broadleaves have no value.

The general consensus was that much as the plantings at Manch [See Editor's Note below] were interesting they had little relevance to "forestry"----essentially we had planted a "park" and only a landowner who had no need to generate an income would consider planting a site like Manch.

I will let some of the comments recorded at the visit speak for themselves.

It was stated that:

ALL Broadleaves within the Coillte estate are considered environmental and are deemed to have no commercial value

There is no market for hardwoods------(even though Coillte in Dundrum is importing hardwoods from UK to fulfil demand!)

There was no market for Sitka before this planting programme, now there is, therefore it proves growing Sitka was the right policy

Hardwoods will only grow on soil like Manch and it is criminal to plant soils like that with hardwoods

It is impossible to grow commercially viable hardwoods west of Manch

If hardwoods are planted there will be no jobs at Graingers

There will be no market for hardwood thinnings unless they can be harvested using large machines

Chainsaws will never again be used to fell timber so harvesting has to be done by machine---therefore has to be clearfell

There is NO evidence that growing Sitka causes acidification or clearfells cause environmental damage------all fiction dreamt up by environmentalists!!

Only have to look at clearfell sites to see they contain more biodiversity than the surrounding bog or Greenfield site

Farmers cannot be expected to prune trees without a grant even if they are getting €200 an acre premium

Farmers were never told they could cover their costs on first thinnings

Unless the plantation is big enough to thin with harvesters farmers cannot be expected to thin

A no management policy and clearfell in 40 years---farmers cannot be expected to do more

The EU have know all along Ireland has no intention of planting hardwoods—therefore they can't be pissed off with current policy

However! There was a general agreement that Coillte should not be selling off its land for development.

A very depressing afternoon-----we have a long way to go!!

Ian Wright
wrighton@eircom.net

[Editor's Note: Manch is the Irish Natural Forestry Foundation's demonstrate site, located on the Bandon River near Dunmanway in West Cork. Ian Wright is the Project Manager.]

Index



5. ARTICLE OF THE WEEK

Drombroe: A Bantry Water Garden Rediscovered

Of all man's creations gardens are the most ephemeral. And gardens in the South West of Ireland, where the winter is modified by the Gulf Stream, are the most ephemeral of all.

Just as weeds grow overnight, so do exotic plants, including Rhododendron Ponticum, the common Rhododendron that is the bane of National Parks. Left to nature, gardens vanish far more quickly than buildings decay.
When the Wilkinson family of Bantry, Co. Cork, died out in 1936 the water garden they had created and planted grew forgotten and uncontrolled for more than fifty years. By 1989, when the present owner, Tim Henry, returned to Ireland and purchased the remains of an Estate that had once belonged to The Earl of Bantry, the sally fencing erected by the farmer who appended the land to his own in the 1930s had grown into a huge and almost impenetrable barrier itself. While the Rhododendrons entwined into a mass of twisting limbs, the bamboo spread itself thickly over the 'jungle-like" floor. Dark and dank, the once sunlit ponds filled with the detritus of forest decay — rotted leaves — and bottles. Only a few huge trees speared above the canopy to alert the new owner to the remains of an arboretum.

What was Wilkinson's Garden? The Ordinance Survey of 1841 shows an unbroken shoreline to Drombrow Lake; the 1897 survey clearly shows cut channels entering the lake just beneath Drombrow House. Between the purchase of the land by a Major Arthur Wilkinson in 1853 and his son's death in 1936, an extensive series of ponds, pools, cascades, and islands covering many acres were cut into the shore. The channels and ponds themselves were eight feet deep, dry-stone lined, and had puddle clay floors. Covered by lock gates, complete with culverts and ceramic pipes laid underground to handle the spring floods and to supply water in times of drought, the intricate and varied shapes of the ponds must have filled with rushing waters, swirling around the paved paths and now vanished bridges.

The shapes of the ponds themselves are the subject of great interest and debate. One school of thought holds that they represent the elder Wilkinson's regimental insignia. It was said that Wilkinson "left his regimental badges there". Another school of thought holds that the signs are religious in nature, Esoteric, Masonic or cabalistic. A third contends the ponds were simply designed to please the eye and separate the plants that the Wilkinsons bred in their "pleasure dome".

A.B.B. Wilkinson, CBE, was not alone in retiring from India to the South West of Ireland. In Rossdohan, an island off Sneem, Dr. Samuel Taylor Heard, a Surgeon-General who had served in Madras, had begun in 1861 to plant a bare island that, lovingly restored in the 1950s, remains today one of Ireland's most enchanted gardens. The Earl of Dunraven, only a few hundred yards to the west, was planting his Garinish Island, and Lord Lansdowne, Viceroy of India, later Governor General of Canada, was bringing rare plants back to his family estate, Derreen. a scant mile across the Kenmare River from Sneem.

Drombrow differed from its historical fellows by its construction. We know of the Wilkinson's engineering prowess from the fact that it is their signature on the 1882 plans of the British Army Battery on Whiddy Island. And it appears it was the Wilkinsons who created Bantry's original water system, piping 300,000 gallons of water a day from Drombrow Lake, much of it to quench the thirst of the British Navy's steam powered boats that called into Bantry Bay. And yet the lost water garden of Drombrow was much more than a marvelous engineering feat. Like their neighbors, they became home to an extraordinary collection of rare plants from all over the world. Even today, after the vicissitudes of more than fifty years, exceptional examples of both Falconeri and Sappho Rhododendrons survive, as well as fine examples of Crinodendron Hookerianum, Pieris Formosa, and Magnolia Soulangiana. And who knows what else lies hidden in the still uncleared undergrowth?

Some of the older residents of Bantry and its district can still remember "Bertie" Wilkinson, described in his obituary in 'The Southern Star' as "practically one of the last of the landed gentry who as a landlord endeared himself to his tenants of whom he had almost become one. He was a generous donor to all charities, and was a broadminded, tolerant man who made hosts of friends among the general public". White haired and bearded, he was reputed to have been fastidious about his paths and lawns, ensuring that as each leaf fell, his gardeners were there to rake it up.

Yet the historical records are bare. The newly formed West Cork Association of An Taisce (The National Trust for Ireland), took on the job of researching the gardens only to discover that the National Archives, the Cork Architectural Institute, the National Library, the Boole Library at UCC, the Trinity College Library, The Royal Irish Academy, The Royal Dublin Society, the Hayes Catalogue of Manuscript sources in Ireland — none of these had any record of an estate called Drombrow, or Drombroe - or a family called Wilkinson. And the standard work by Edward Mallins and Patrick Bowe — 'lrish Gardens and Demesnes from 1830' — never mentions Drombrow.

Because of the importance that gardens played in the lives of men like Wilkinson, Dunraven, or Lansdowne, meticulous records were kept of the species, the dates, and the source of each garden planting. Some of these documents still survive. The Dunraven family had their records immaculately printed in Dublin by Hely's Ltd. in 1915. Leather bound and guilt edged with marbled end-papers, they had but two copies printed. One survives. The Derreen Garden book, probably the oldest continually maintained garden record in Ireland, begins in 1871 with a donation of an Aloe from Dr. Heard's Rossdohan, a stone's throw across the Kenmare River. But none of these documents mention Drombrow. And no trace of the Wilkinson family papers has yet been found.

It was particularly important to find some written records of the garden because in 1983, while the gardens were still largely forgotten, the Bantry Water Augmentation Scheme was drawn up. Under this proposal, Drombrow Lake would be dammed and in an ironic twist of fate the gardens would find themselves covered in sixteen feet of water. To plead the case for Drombrow's preservation, documentation had to be unearthed.

It was the then chairman of An Taisce's Garden Heritage Committee, Dr. Charles Nelson of the National Botanic Gardens, who suggested the researchers consult the Garden's old ledgers. These ledgers, large sized volumes bound in leather with their hand-written entries, provided a record of the plants "Donated by the Garden" to a set of favoured gardeners around Ireland. Other volumes in turn listed plants "Donated to the Garden".

Amongst the list of the far-off exotic gardens of Penang, St. Petersburg and Tasmania — and of the mighty Irish Estates of Powerscourt and Mt. Usher — lay the name of "A.B. Wilkinson of Drombroe, Bantry".

Wilkinson had been part of the network of gardens around Ireland that were approved by Sir Frederick Moore, director of the Royal Dublin Botanic Gardens — as they were then called. Moore sent down, between 1893 and 1936, Hibiscus, Veronica, Amaryllis, and even the little Primula that he had named in honour of his wife. Particularly exciting were long lists of numbered Rhododendrons that had been collected by the great plant explorers, Kingdom- Ward and Forest. From the far reaches of the Himalayas some of the rarest plants in the world had come to the hills above Bantry. The South West of Ireland became the breeding ground of poly-genetic exoticism.

Wilkinson in turn served as a local collector for the Botanic Gardens, collecting and shipping to Dublin the annual supplies of Kerry Butterwort (Piuguiculas) that came into fashion at the turn of the century and was then in great demand. He sent up Bamboos, Phlox, and, strangest of all, "Col Fernandezianus seeds", a "rosy plant with yellow thistle-like flowers" with a note revealing that they had been collected for Wilkinson by his life long friend and the beneficiary under his will, Surgeon Commander Edmund Frances Fitzmaurice, RN.

Another local botanic collection surfaced in the records of Garnish Island, the Glengarriff island garden known also as Ilnacullin. Cormac Foley, the District Parks Supervisor for the South West of Ireland, consulted the records to discover that Drombrow had contributed a Pieris to the first great planting of 1919, adding Fuchsias, CameiIias, and Rhododendrons over the next fifteen years.

The housekeeper on this island — still in residence sixty-seven years after entering service as a young girl — remembers Bertie Wilkinson and his mother coming to tea. After the younger Wilkinson's death in 1936, Murdo Mackenzie, the great Scottish gardener who lived and worked on Ilnacullin for more than fifty years, returned to Drombrow to bring a dozen of the rarer Rhododendrons, Fuchsias, and Crinodendron out from the encroaching neglect. One, Rhododendron Magnificum, is still photographed today in the Ilnacullin guidebook.

But what emerged from these records more startling than any of the other discoveries was that the Wilkinsons used their water gardens to breed water lilies. As early as 1904 Nympheas — water lilies — were coming down from Dublin: pink water lilies, blue water lilies, double water lilies; lilies named for their discoverer — William Stone — for their lustre — Briilantum — or for their size — Colossus. And by 1918 Wilkinson was sending up his own Bantry-bred double pink water lilies.

Heralded as "unique in Northern Europe" by Dr. Nelson, the future of the gardens is very much a current issue. Backed by Cork/Kerry Tourism, the Botanic Gardens, and the Office of Public Works, An Taisce has asked Cork County Council to consider alternatives to flooding these gardens. Working without support, Drombrow's new owner has done much to begin the Herculean task of revealing these lost gardens. With the help of bodies such as The Heritage Council and, in particular, the newly-established Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Programme, much more could be done — and done much more quickly. Restored and cleaned, the culverts and bridges rebuilt, the islands and shores replanted, garden lovers from all over the world would make a pilgrimage to Bantry to see what Dr. Nelson has called a "garden of outstanding international importance".
Tony Lowes
© Mizen Archaeological and Historical Society, No. 3, 1995

Index



6. EVENTS

Forest Energy 2006
23 August: First thinning of Sitka, Frenchpark
25 August: First Thinning of Sitka, Swan
28 August: First thining of ash/sycamore, Portlaw
First thining of Sitka, Kilbrin
Clearfell birch and lodgepole, Kilbrin
Details: www.teagasc.ie/forestry

Manch Open Days
The Manch Project was established by the Irish Natural Forestry Foundation as a centre of excellence for sustainable forestry. Plantings are based on continuous forest cover which ensures minimum disruption to woodland ecosystems. A variety of trials provide examples for the education and promotion of the Foundation's principles.
20 August: new plantings and dray rides
1 October: old woodland and horse logging
5 November: old woodland and horse logging
Details: 027 73208
Manch is located 3 miles from Dunmanway on the Bandon road.


October 6: 2007: Irish Forestry at the Crossroads
The Irish Natural Forestry Foundation
Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin

This conference will present the alternative vision of sustainable forestry for Ireland. Of particular note will be contributions from the European, Welsh, and Scottish foresters. These will address changes in forestry policy in Europe and the United Kingdom, including the increasingly topical subject of transformation or restructuring of existing monoculture conifer plantations into diverse resources.

Using INFF's Manch Project as an example, the on-the-ground problems of matching sustainable forestry with current Forest Service Procedures will be addressed. The conference is funded by The Forest Service under its Sustainable Forestry Programme and will be chaired by Ronan O'Flaherty, the Principle Officer of the Forest Service.
Details: 027 23208



6. ABOUT US

FNN is an independent voluntary service. It is distributed only by email and is free. It relies on contributions from its readers.

Newsletter editors:

Caroline Lewis
carolinelewis@eircom.net

Tony Lowes
tony@friendsoftheirishenvironment.org

Ian Wright
wrighton@eircom.net

The editors take collective responsibility for what they publish. The omission of an authors name indicates that the editors generally agree with and stand over the contents. There may be and often are a number of collaborating authors on each article and additionally some authors may for valid reasons not wish to be identified. This does not mean the editors never make mistakes and they look forward to having their attention drawn to any factual inaccuracies in any articles they have published.

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Please visit their Home Page
http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/main/index.phphttp://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/main/index.php

The FIE network includes the highly popular The Irish Papers Today [TIPT], a review of the days Irish papers and selected sources outside Ireland about the environment. This is available as an early morning daily email and from the website, which is updated every day. You can subscribe and unsubscribe through this site. A newsfeed with the changing headlines is also available free for any website.
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