New study gives insight into restoration plans at large Mayo forest

A study into a forest located in Mayo’s largest national park has been described as ‘a useful platform’ for the restoration of thousands of acres of forest. 

A restoration plan for Nephin Forest has been in the works for several years, with the incentive for such a large-scale project growing since the recent passing of the EU Nature Restoration Law. 

Located in Wild Nephin National Park, plans are ongoing to remove over 4,000 thousands of acres of commercial forestry to create an 11,000 hectare wilderness area in the Nephin Beg mountains.

A new research paper, just published in the journal Applied Vegetation Science, has highlighted restoration targets, the methods to be used, and a monitoring strategy which will enable progress to be measured accurately. 

Following a large survey of the area, which recorded the plant communities at 230 sites within the forest, the study first identified those communities that remain in a relatively non-degraded state, persisting since the area was afforested. 

Through understanding the relationship between environmental factors and these reference sites, restoration measures for specific regions of Nephin Forest can be identified. 

The study was conducted by Atlantic Technological University (ATU) and the Marine Institute, in collaboration with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

Sam Birch, NPWS Regional Manager, welcomed the opportunity to be involved in the research, which ‘comes at an important time for Wild Nephin National Park’. 

He continued: “It makes a valuable contribution to a growing body of research about the diverse habitats and species in our National Parks. It gives us a baseline to inform our restoration work at Wild Nephin National Park and helps us to plan how we will monitor progress over the coming years.” 

Lead author of the paper, Colin Guilfoyle, a PhD student with ATU who is funded through the Marine Institute Cullen Scholarship Programme, called the study a ‘useful platform’ for future planning. 

“Afforestation has had widespread impacts on the local plant communities, but yet there are pockets which remain relatively undamaged that give an insight into what restoration of different regions of the forest might look like,” he added.

“Monitoring these changes in the long-term enables an assessment of the success of measures and informs decisions on whether a site is capable of recovering without further human intervention.”

Dr Heather Lally, Principal Investigator based at ATU, concluded: “This research highlights the importance of collecting and utilising baseline data in areas proposed for large-scale ecological restoration and how this data can inform management plans, leading to restoration success”.

The research is open access and is available on the Wiley online library.