FOI Request FOI-0348-2021
Not water related, but worth posting, as for many years I’ve been trying to get a map of Irish national parks.
I was always suspicious that when you requested NPWS map of Wicklow national park, the only map provided was in A4 pdf with insufficient detail.
Some boundaries appeared strange on older OSI maps, and the mapping did not appear to have been updated since the early 2000s, so status of newer additions to the park were unclear.
Accurate maps of the national park are important as deer hunting is banned in the parks, yet stalkers have no certainty on the actual boundaries.
Accurate mapping data is also import to neighboring landowners (private landowners and Coillte), to university research teams, and to anyone doing conservation work in the areas of the parks. It is also obviously important to the work of the NPWS themselves.
The following FOI gives an insight into the current state of play. It only covers one of the national parks (Wicklow), but the same issue exists for all national parks.
The updated maps would include the 2016 expansion of Glenasmole Valley/Bohernabreena.
https://www.npws.ie/news/expansion-wicklow-mountains-national-park
Thanks to Steven Matthews TD and the Irish Deer Commission for helping to highlight the lack of accurate mapping.