A new volunteer organisation is aiming to reverse the recent devastation caused to the Ballymacraven River in North Clare and restore it to its former glory. Thousands of fish were killed in the river in May of 2023 following a significant water pollution event. Earlier this month, Uisce Éireann were fined €10,000 for the incident, which threatens the viability of the river’s population of Atlantic salmon and eels.
In the wake of this decision, the newly formed Restore Ballymacraven River Association now aims to painstakingly rebuild the habitat of the river and hopefully help restore the local fish population.
Group spokesperson, Kevin Nunan, said the group welcomed the recent case against Uisce Éireann but also committed to working with the water utility in the future to help rebuild the river.
“We were delighted with the outcome of the recent case again Uisce Éireann and we would like to pay tribute to the staff of Inland Fisheries Ireland who put all that evidence together and who brought forward the prosecution,” he said.
“There was a lot of anger and frustration locally about what happened, it was an awful event to see 2,000 dead fish in what is a beautiful river.
“We want to harness the energy that is there in a positive way and get together as a group of volunteers to restore the habitat and get the river back to what it once was.
“We have a small committee and we are focussed on channelling that energy and engendering a respect for the river.
“It is our river and a wonderful habitat. We want to get people interested in that and buy into it and hopefully they will be quicker to report anything that is going wrong and nothing like this will happen again.”
The Restore Ballymacraven River Association said it now looks forward to working in partnership with Uisce Éireann, Inland Fisheries Ireland and all other interested parties in beginning restoration work on the river. It also notes the work carried out by Uisce Éireann since the fishkill to avoid a repeat occurrence.
“It will be a long process, over a few years, but the idea is to be positive about it and get the community involved and get them to buy into that,” said Mr Nunan.
“The plan this year is to remove the invasive species along the river, there are quite a lot of them there, especially in the area close to the Falls Hotel in the area known as The Glen.
“We are proposing to remove them and plant up to 2,000 native trees to reestablish the habitat there.
“What follows on from that is the flora and fauna, in particular the invertebrates, and hopefully the fish will feed off of them and hopefully they will then reestablish themselves in the river.”
While the full restoration of the river could take years or perhaps decades, the group is confident of success.
In recent month the Restore Ballymacraven River Association has hosted a number of events to raise awareness of the river including community meetings, river clean-up days, citizen science outings and community outreach events.
The group will host a community meeting on March 1 in the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon from 8pm and have invited all interested members of the public to attend.
This meeting will outline the planned work programme of the Restore Ballymacraven River Association for 2024 and possible avenues for funding that work.
Andrew Hamilton is a journalist, investigative reporter and blogger who has been working in the media in Ireland for the past 20 years. His areas of special interest include the environment, mental health and politics.