Alternate title

Lough Ree SAC 91E0 survey

Date (Publication)

2010-01-01T00:00:00

Citation identifier

https://data.gov.ie/dataset/ / Survey of Annex I Alluvial woodland in Lough Ree cSAC 2019

Purpose

It was beyond the scope and resources of this project to conduct a comprehensive survey of ancient woodland in Ireland. Hence, the overall objective was instead to identify resources and develop a protocol for the identification of ancient woodland and to initialise a national inventory. This will provide a formal framework for future studies in ancient woodland. The aims of this project were therefore to:

1. Investigate the historical records available in the Republic of Ireland which can provide an assessment of woodland longevity.

2. Collate available information from previous research into ancient woodlands in Ireland.

3. Research through desk-based work and fieldwork a selection of woodland sites from across the country.

4. Produce a National Ancient and Long-established Woodland Inventory in the form of a GIS data layer showing the extent and distribution of researched sites.

5. Produce a preliminary list of ancient and long-established woodland vascular plant indicators for the Republic of Ireland and identify other pertinent features associated with these woodlands.

Status

Completed

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage	National Parks and Wildlife Service	datadelivery@housing.gov.ie	Point of contact

Maintenance and update frequency

As needed

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

• Habitats and biotopes

GEMET - Concepts, version 3.1

• habitat, biodiversity, woodland ecosystem

National Parks and Wildlife Service

• National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, species, habitat protection, heritage, National Biodiversity Plan

ISO 3166

• Ireland

Use limitation

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access constraints

Other restrictions

Other constraints

Copyright Government of Ireland. This dataset was created by National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This copyright material is licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Spatial representation type

Vector

Denominator

10560

Language

English

Character set

UTF8

Topic category

• Environment
• Biota

Begin date

2019-06-25

End date

2019-10-29

Reference system identifier

EPSG / https://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/29903

EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset EPSG 2009-11-25

Distribution format

Name	Version
Esri shapefile	v10.x

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage	National Parks and Wildlife Service	datadelivery@housing.gov.ie.ie	Point of contact

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
zip	https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/general/AWLR19_01.zip	Survey of Annex I Alluvial woodland in Lough Ree cSAC 2019

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
text/pdf	https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/survey-of-annex-I-alluvial-woodlands-in-lough-ree-csac-2019.pdf	Publication Document

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Statement

Two study sites in Lough Ree cSAC were originally selected based on the results of the National Survey of Native Woodland (NSNW) (Perrin et al., 2008a) that indicated *91E0 may be present there, but were not conclusive. The two sites originally selected were St John’s Wood, Co. Roscommon, widely regarded as one of the best native woodlands in the country, and Clearaun, Co. Longford.

The shore of Lough Ree at St John’s Wood was walked on 23rd-26th July 2019 by the surveyors. During the walkover

survey, lakeshore woodland was assessed for its conformity to the *91E0 alluvial forest Annex I habitat type. The key criteria used to evaluate *91E0 were vegetation composition, soil type, and evidence of periodic inundation.

Vegetation composition was assessed with reference to positive indicator species used in the previous (2007-2012) monitoring period (O'Neill and Barron, 2013).

Due to equipment malfunctions, the extent of *91E0 at St John’s Wood was marked in the field on hard copy aerial photos over which a 100 m x 100 m grid in the Irish Grid coordinate reference system had been printed. This was supplemented with the use of a Garmin eTrex handheld GPS unit. Waypoints were marked at important points along the boundary of *91E0 polygons, such as the beginning and end along the shoreline, maximum woodland interior extent and bends in the habitat boundary. GPS accuracy was maximised by ensuring the unit was on for enough time for a stable signal to be received from satellites. The location of the study area alongside a large, open lake also appeared to help GPS accuracy, especially when compared to performance in most woodlands. Error reported by the GPS unit typically ranged

from 4-7 m.

Hand-drawn maps and GPS waypoints were then used in the office to digitise *91E0 polygons over 1:5000 OSI vector mapping and aerial photography provided by NPWS. Digitising was carried out using QGIS 3.4 (QGIS Development Team, 2019).

Metadata

File identifier

917183ed-0fc3-490e-981e-f45b8486087a XML

Metadata language

English

Character set

UTF8

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Date stamp

2024-01-31T11:58:12

Metadata standard name

ISDI Metadata Profile

Metadata standard version

1.2

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage	National Parks and Wildlife Service	datadelivery@housing.gov.ie	Author