LIFE13 NAT/IE/000144
An agri-environmental initiative that operated between 2014 and 2020.
KerryLIFE was co-funded by the EU’s LIFE Programme; Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht; Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine; Coillte; Teagasc; and the South Kerry Development Partnership.
Funding was over €5 million
The project covered two river systems which are home to almost half of Ireland’s population of freshwater pearl mussels – the Blackwater and Caragh River Catchments, in the Iveragh Peninsula, Co. Kerry.
KerryLIFE invested in on-farm works to enhance and protect water quality in the two catchments. Farmers fenced off river courses, installed drinking troughs and allowed nature to flourish.
For many, it was “counter-intuitive”, but working with the KerryLIFE team and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), they blocked drains in order to prevent sediment washing into the rivers.
Techniques to restructure forests were also trialed across 220ha of public and private land in the catchments.