Madam, – We wish to respond to claims made by the Turf Cutters & Contractors Association suggesting that the current scale of turf cutting is not adversely affecting habitat (Luke Flanagan, Letters, May 17th, and Home News, May 29th).
Your Environment Editor is hardly a “well-meaning but misguided environmentalist”. He was in fact guided by numerous Government studies, and noted Ireland’s most recent report to the UN that “there has been a 99 per cent loss of the original area of actively growing raised bog, and one-third of the remaining 1 per cent has been lost in the last 10 years”.
Councillor Flanagan’s arguments are based on a belief that “turf cutters and bogs have a symbiotic relationship”. A symbiotic relationship is one which is mutually advantageous – not one where one side of the partnership is entirely consumed. If the Turf Cutters Contractors Association has its way, there will be nothing left to be passed on to the next generation.
There are alternatives, and we support measures to assist individuals no longer permitted to cut turf in protected areas. Grants are available towards the cost of insulating homes, as well as the fitting of more efficient heating systems. Furthermore, there may be a case for new measures to promote woodland planting on suitable land for annual harvesting as a potentially carbon-neutral fuel source.
It is clear too that the State has a more pivotal role to play than is sometimes envisaged: what partnerships will it put in place to help local communities, and how will Government and its agencies phase out practices that damage peatland habitats, with a focus instead on capturing the public benefits they deliver, such as carbon storage, biodiversity and the containment of floodwaters? – Yours, etc,