Suggestions on Protection of the River

A local person who has lived in the area for about 20 years brought up some more issues which we could consider as part of the river preservation. He feels that the river level is more related to Wicklow CoCo taking water via pipes in the dryer summer months, as opposed to the reservoir – he believes that the water level in summer is impacted mostly by this.
Removal of trees from watercourse – last time this was done after the storms, when it was too late. There’s a good chance this will happen again. There’s a lot of heavy timber in the water around Devils Glen. This is something we could easily sort out, and we could arrange a work party to remove this.
Removal of trees from river banks needs to be managed as it impacts on otters.
Mink population wipes out the fish, and they need to be trapped. There’s definitely mink in Devils Glen, but not sure of overall population on river. When mink are removed, the otters move back in.
Conifers planted too close to watercourse drop leaves and that makes the water too acidic.

October 13 2009 06:15 am | Active and Wildlife

One Response to “Suggestions on Protection of the River”

  1. admin Says:
    October 13th, 2009 at 6:33 am

    The extraction of the Wicklow County Council below Annagolan Bridge runs though an old cast iron pipe that crosses the Vartry below our property. This is a 9″ pipe and contains as much water as can be passed through it at the pressure of the height of the water. I believe the physics of it, controls the water that is extracted and as far as I know, this has not changed. The reservoir controls how much water will flow in the river, absolutely. As well in the past 20 years, there has been a change. About 10 years ago in the big drought, they repaired leaks in the piping which was allowing more water to “leak” out into the Vartry. Now they could shut down all of the water.
    The Eastern Regional Fisheries Board have been busy on our land clearing and cutting trees. We could consult with them as to what needs to be done in regards to trees in the watercourse and conifers that need trimming away from the river.
    The minks vs. the otters. We have seen otters, we believe, but a otter pup and a mink could easily be confused. Again we would need to consult with some experts as to how to control the mink population but this seems like a worthwhile effort.