Tuesday July 9 Nathan Sawyer
Today in Dingle we left our hostel and drove through Conor Pass
through the mountains with the bus going up and down its rolling hills. With a
one lane road it's still two way traffic so it gets a bit sketchy when the bus
pulls off near the cliff edge to let the traffic go.
But as we arrived at the Mahrees it leveled out from farmland to a tombola, which is a sandy isthmus that connects to pieces of land via sand. As we arrived at the conservation area we met Martha Farrell, a conservationist working for a nonprofit that helps rewild the beaches of the Maharees.
From DJ raves to “wild camping” the
beaches got
decimated by us humans. The grass was broken off and the sand blows away due to
the lack of root structure to hold the sand and keep the dunes in place.
Martha's job was to plant more marram grasses to help reshape the dunes and
rewild the beaches. We measured in a 30 meter radius the floral fauna that
grows naturally along the grasses, and looked at the newly planted grasses and
see what other fauna have come back with the recent plantings.
We learned a lot about the different views of nature and how the locals treated the environmentalists. And it's not the happiest attitude when trying to get rid of OSV (On Sand Vehicles) beach access. The funny thing about that is it's heavily frowned upon here but where I'm from, Martha's Vineyard, people come from all over the world to sit on the beaches with their cars. Martha's vineyard is not the only place where it's allowed, along the coast of New England many people drive their cars on the beach daily. It's very interesting to see the divide between
what's accepted
and what's frowned upon.
The vineyard has the same problem with storms and people ravaging the beaches and it's only a matter of time till my home makes the very hard decision to close OSV access. Martha talked about the response to closing the “wild camping spots' ' they were named like the “no fun police”. I hope as a society we can bridge this disconnect between recreation, lifestyle and environmentalism so that we all can have a good time while protecting and furthering the life of different species and floral fauna.
But as we arrived at the Mahrees it leveled out from farmland to a tombola, which is a sandy isthmus that connects to pieces of land via sand. As we arrived at the conservation area we met Martha Farrell, a conservationist working for a nonprofit that helps rewild the beaches of the Maharees.
From DJ raves to “wild camping” the
We learned a lot about the different views of nature and how the locals treated the environmentalists. And it's not the happiest attitude when trying to get rid of OSV (On Sand Vehicles) beach access. The funny thing about that is it's heavily frowned upon here but where I'm from, Martha's Vineyard, people come from all over the world to sit on the beaches with their cars. Martha's vineyard is not the only place where it's allowed, along the coast of New England many people drive their cars on the beach daily. It's very interesting to see the divide between
The vineyard has the same problem with storms and people ravaging the beaches and it's only a matter of time till my home makes the very hard decision to close OSV access. Martha talked about the response to closing the “wild camping spots' ' they were named like the “no fun police”. I hope as a society we can bridge this disconnect between recreation, lifestyle and environmentalism so that we all can have a good time while protecting and furthering the life of different species and floral fauna.
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