REPS & Environment

At the Irish Wildlife Conference in Durrow, County Laois, last week-end, a freshwater pearl mussel named after the town was discussed. Margaritifera durrowvensis is found along a ten kilometre limestone stretch of the Nore around Durrow.

It can live up to 130 years. Reproduction is slow. This makes it more vulnerable. It requires clean water free from silt to breed successfully.

Watercourse margins

Fencing watercourse margins allows vegetation to grow. This provides a filter preventing nutrients entering watercourses. Vegetation also stabilises banks.

It prevents soil erosion and the build-up of silt in rivers. Field margins are used by intensive dairy farmers in New Zealand to protect watercourses.

REPS

In REPS, access by bovines to within 1.5 metres of watercourses must be prohibited before the end of the first year of the plan and thereafter. Fences must be a minimum of 1.5 metres from the top of the bank of the watercourse.

Options

Two of the options to be undertaken for the higher REPS 3 payments offer further protection to watercourses. To participate in these options, a farm must have watercourses that require fencing. The farm must be planned to include bovines. Option 3A is to increase watercourse margins from 1.5 to 2.5 metres. The application of pesticides and chemical fertilisers within this margin is prohibited. Option 3B excludes all bovine access to all watercourses on the farm. A minimum of two piped drinking troughs per farm must be provided in fields adjoining the watercourse(s) in question.