The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) have recently funded a collaborative project between University College Dublin (UCD), Cork Institute of Technology, Coillte and Green Belt Ltd. to assess the hydrological and sediment impacts of forestry operations in Ireland. UCD is the lead organisation in the project.
Forestry presents pressures to the ecological status of watercourses, with sediment release being a recognised stressor in this regard. This field-based project will measure flow change and sediment release at seven forestry sites with adjacent or nearby lotic waterbodies.
Study sites will reflect a range of soils, topographical and hydrological settings relevant to Irish forestry and the monitoring strategy for the project will target different forestry operations (afforestation, harvesting, windrowing and reforestation) over the project duration. This contract is for the provision of 4 no. portable automatic water samplers to facilitate the above-mentioned project