Help us protect 
An Bhearú/ The river Barrow & the surrounding flora & fauna!

Waterways ireland & Carlow County Council have put a plan in place for a development  that will damage one of our last wild spaces in Co. Carlow. 

They have been granted permission for a development of land along the track spanning from Newacre all the way to St.Mullins which is 5 miles of River. 

Within these 5 miles are special areas of conservation which should be protected & respected. 
So why is something like this still allowed the go ahead? 

This information about the conservation of Land is within the Irishstatuebook.
Link below 

https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2024/si/648/made/en/print#:~:text=The%20area%20known%20as%20River,line%20and%20hatched%20in%20red

They plan to dredge the river uprooting & scooping the river bed which will harm & disturb many species.

Such as salmon eggs, trout, dragonfly, eel ,perch & pike, to name but a few. 

Any disruption to an ecosystem causes it to become unbalanced & will result in not being able to sustain itself.
 And this usually happens because of human interferance & human ignorance. 

Plans are also in place for

 'Bank revetment' this means a great amount of construction will have to be achieved to create a harder path along the The Barrow. 
This will disrupt & destroy equatic life further.

A huge amount of rock amour is planned to be placed along this 5 mile radius which will be at the edge of the river bank of An Bhearú. This will break down overtime from flooding anyway.

They don't need to create this massive amount of destructive construction to fix something that's not broken.

So why do it at all? 

Having heavy machinery on the Riverbank alone will disrupt so many of the Barrows natural inhabitants. 

Kingfisher have their nests in the bank & don't need this disturbance to their homes & chick's. 
While all species should be protected , ones that are mentioned within the Wildlife Act are the fresh water pearl mussle & the otter. 
The wildlife act is in place for the conservation & protection of our wildlife. 
So why are they not protecting it? 

These species both reside in An Bhearú/ The Barrow and are critically endangered. 
Otter have their Holts (homes) within this very bank & underground. 
Their homes need to be protected & so do they.

The Barrow is also home to 47 known & documented birds. https://ebird.org/hotspot/L16161576 

This development with disrupt them all too.

A development like this should not be going ahead espically if it's going to cause such an negative impact to our already delicate ecosystem. 

There is already an objection in motion which has been presented to 
An bord pleanála. 

Please if you can take the time to sign this petition & share this message.
 It will be within the power of numbers that we need to have one of our last wild spaces protected. 

You can help this change.

And please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any advice on how we can help this matter further.
That would be greatly appreciated. 

Go raibh maith agat