Invasive species mapping on Howth, Co. Dublin

Fingal County Council invited tenders for mapping of invasive species at Howth, Co. Dublin. The objective of the mapping was to fulfil the objectives of Action 1A (1.5) of the Howth Special Amenity Area Order Operational Plan 2015-2020: Control of invasive species with a particular focus on Rhododendron, Birch and garden plant escapes. The requirements of this project were two-fold. Firstly, Fingal County Council required that the coastal cliffs between Bellingham’s Farm and the Baily Lighthouse be surveyed for invasive species as there has been a lot of dumping of garden waste in this location over the past few decades, which has led to several invasive and exotic species establishing themselves on the cliffs. The cliffs are fully within the Howth Head Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and the presence of invasive species is negatively affecting the native flora in this location. It was required that a site visit to the assigned location be carried out with Dr. Noeleen Smyth, National Botanic Gardens, in order to map and quantify (m2) the invasive and exotic species recorded. Dr. Emer Ní Dhúill carried out the desktop review of control measures of all invasive and exotic species encountered in order to determine the most appropriate methods of control. The second part of the project was to produce a map of Rhododendron ponticum L. around the Summit of Howth. R. ponticum control has been carried out by the Council for the past ten years and they required mapping of the Summit of Howth in order to target new stands of R. ponticum along the edges of the heathland and any remaining individual shrubs. The area to be mapped included the large stand of R. ponticum west of the Rhododendron Gardens at the Deer Park Hotel, Howth. The following report relates to the first part of the project which is the survey of the coastal cliffs between Bellingham’s Farm and the Baily Lighthouse. The requirements of the second part of the project will be submitted separately as a map of R. ponticum on the Summit of Howth in PDF and GIS format.