Traditional farming methods are key to saving the Burren, writes Sean MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent
Oliver Cromwell is supposed to have said of the Burren that it did not have enough wood on it to hang a man or enough soil to bury him. It appears that Cromwell, like many other visitors to the area, missed the point.
He was looking at 150 square miles of one of Europe's most unique landscapes, which plays host to 70 per cent of Ireland's native flora, hundreds of man-made stone monuments and a way of life which is unique in Europe.
He could not have known that people have lived comfortably off the limestone rock, which has played host in its crevices to plants from the Mediterranean, the Arctic and the Alpine regions for over 6,000 years.
On it can be found rare orchids and underground lakes and turloughs, hardy breeds of cattle, wild goats, foxes and pine martens.
He would not have been told that when, in every part of his own and this island, farmers were bringing their cattle and sheep down from the hills for the winters, the Burren men were then bringing their animals up to graze where grass grows 11 months of the year.
No one told the man he was looking at a very special storage heater of limestone, washed on the west by the Gulf Stream, which retains the summer heat and allows wondrous things to happen.
According to Brendan Dunford, a quiet-spoken Waterford man who has made the Burren his home, Cromwell is not the only one who totally misjudged this landscape; many people still do.
Dunford, who has put down his roots in Kinvara, has been studying the uniqueness of the Burren for the past four years and has put his knowledge into a new book on this special place.
His postgraduate research, sponsored by Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, has led him to conclude that the Burren's rare plants and flora are in danger because of current market trends in farming.
"Farmers are often seen as environmental villains, but in the case of the Burren, the opposite is the truth. Without a continuation of the traditional methods of farming, which has sustained the community here for 6,000 years, the Burren is in trouble," he says.
"Many people come here and see the wonderful views and look at the monuments and the plants, but they seem to never think of the people. If I want to change anything, that is what I want to do.
"The traditional methods of grazing, when farmers took their cattle up into the high parts of the Burren to winter them there, bringing them down in April and selling them on, was what created this environment. This winter grazing cleared the land of the larger plants and gave light for the delicate spring plants to grow. The cattle were brought down in spring and these plants flourished.
"But now, with the market pressures on the farmers here, many are moving towards feeding their cattle silage or concentrates. Some have abandoned the practice of putting up animals at all and this is very serious," he says.
"As in many other parts of Europe, farming is in decline and more and more farmers are part-timers who cannot get a living from the very labour-intensive job which Burren farming requires."
According to Dunford, if cattle are left on the Burren all year round, they crush and eat the rare plants and the manure they leave on the ground changes the delicate balances in the soil created by the old methods.
The wild goats, he says, which now roam the area, do not have the eating power to clear out the hazel sprouts which come when land is not properly grazed, nor is the hazel rod now being exploited for firing and thatching, which happened in the past.
Studies he carried out found that undergrazing the Burren was even more damaging than overgrazing, but the worst option of all was to leave the small fields untouched.
He worries that, as pressure on farming continues, there may be either abandonment of the uplands by many of the 500 farmers who use the Burren or they may be forced to overgraze the portions they are working.
Dunford has seen this happen already, as farmers are forced to increase stocking rates and, in doing so, bring in silage or meal concentrates, upsetting the balance necessary for the continuation of traditional ways.
His studies suggest that animals fed on concentrates rather than silage would eat more of the rough grasses and other vegetation of the Burren as they sought out minerals and, in doing so, would preserve the delicate balance needed there.
Above all, Dunford is in awe of the older people on the Burren who had an innate knowledge of how to survive on the rocks so maligned by Cromwell.
"It has been a great privilege to be with, and to have been educated by, these people whose lineage stretches back so far," he said.
He is also in awe of the monuments left by the people of the Burren, from the megalithic tombs to the stone walls and shepherd huts and animal shelters they created for their own and their animals' needs.
He has been inspired, too, by their knowledge of how to work this difficult place and get a living from a terrain which most conventional farmers would turn their backs from and walk away.
However, their numbers are dwindling and they cannot survive in the kind of numbers necessary to preserve the Burren without help. He is convinced it cannot survive in the state we know it without farmers.
"What we have to do is acknowledge the overwhelmingly positive role played by these farmers and support them through research, education and income to ensure that this critical role is upheld and strengthened in the future," he says.
"Farmers, for their part, must deliver in a proactive fashion, fulfilling their role as custodians of the countryside and meeting the attendant challenges head on. And we know they are well capable of doing this."
But most of all, Dunford says that "as a society we cannot expect that farmers adhere to the traditional low-impact systems they have been operating to the benefit of the landscape and ignore the market forces driving them towards making a better living there."
He says it is too early to know if the changes being proffered in the Luxembourg agreement on the Common Agricultural Policy would help in that process, but no matter what happens, people will continue to farm there and the process will continue to evolve.
"This is a very special place which needs very special attention. I am hopeful that positive things will happen in the future, and that this book will help those who might not understand the complexity of life here will get some insights into the Burren and its people."
Farming and the Burren, by Brendan Dunford, is published by Teagasc at €10
• See also www.burrenbeo.com, a website promoting education and awareness about the Burren, and in particular it acknowledges and supports the positive contribution of the local farming community to the rich and diverse heritage of the region