A farmer has told Caslebar District Court in Co. Mayo that he is facing a €1,000 deduction from his Basic Payments Scheme (BPS) in 2022 for removing vegetation during the bird nesting season.
At a sitting of the court on Wednesday of last week (January 5), the farmer in question, who is from Claremorris, entered a guilty plea via Thomas Walsh Solicitors to an offence under Section 40 of the Wildlife Act, which relates to the destruction of vegetation on lands not then cultivated during the statutory bird nesting season.
On foot of that plea, a separate charge under Section 23 of the Wildlife Act – the willful destruction of the breeding or resting place of a protected wild mammal (badger) – was struck out.
The case was taken by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) – which is under the remit of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage – and prosecuted by Brendan McDonagh BL and Vincent Deane, state solicitor for Co. Mayo.
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage issued a statement today (Tuesday, January 11) outlining the facts of the case.
District conservation officer Eugene Finnerty, of the NPWS, told Judge Deirdre Gearty that on April 21, 2020, conservation rangers encountered men in the process of removing vegetation from the perimeter of a natural Ash/Hazel broadleaf woodland in the townland of Largan, Tulrohan, Co. Mayo.
The NPWS argued that an eight-to-10m strip of vegetation, constituting 17% of the total woodland area, had been removed around the block of the native woodland over a period of time, some of which was within the bird nesting season.
The NPWS further argued that there was no felling licence in place.
The defendant argued through his solicitor that he was “not aware of the bird nesting season” and had to fence his property due to issues with trespassing livestock.
The farmer also outlined he had already been penalised €1,000, with a further potential €1,000 to be deducted in 2022 in his BPS monies, following a cross compliance report to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine by the NPWS in relation to this incident.
Judge Deirdre Gearty said the bird nesting season – which runs from March 1, to the end of August – was commonly known, and proceeded to convict the defendant under Section 40 of the Wildlife Act, issuing a €500 fine with five months to pay.
In its statement today, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage said that the NPWS has “noted an increase in reports from the public of Wildlife Act Section 40 incidents, with a corresponding increase in cases before the courts”.
According to the department, the NPWS has brought over 70 Section 40-related prosecutions just since 2020, with a further 30 currently in the courts system or with the Chief State Solicitor’s Office.
“The NPWS would appeal to landowners to be fully aware of their legal responsibilities in terms of Section 40 of the Wildlife Acts – removal of vegetation during the bird nesting season from lands not then cultivated or from any hedge or ditch,” the statement added.
It concluded: “Landowners in receipt of EU BPS monies should also be fully aware of any requirements that apply under the EU BPS rules and cross-compliance.”