National heritage award for Clonmel environmental group

SuirCan Environmental, the Clonmel-based group, carried off a national heritage award last week for their groundbreaking survey carried out this year on threatened species in the River Suir.
This honour represents a huge project involving more than 40 “citizen scientist” volunteers up and down the river and tributaries who gave up their time this summer.
They participated in groundbreaking genetic research which will be used to shape future land and water management policies and practices in the South East where rivers are under particular threat from pollution.
The glittering award ceremony at Croke Park was opened by Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan and the awards were presented by Nationwide presenter Anne Cassin.
In his acceptance speech, Alan Moore of SuirCan paid tribute to the work of the volunteers who attended Zoom and river bank
seminars to achieve the precise skills needed to obtain and accurately process the water samples at 120 different sites along the river between June and September this year.
“Without the volunteers, this project would simply never have happened,” he said.
The research uses cutting edge science to examine environmental DNA in the samples which detect the presence of freshwater pearl mussels, sea lamprey and white -clawed crayfish.
The samples are currently under analysis in UCD in Dublin and results will be released at the end of the year in a report which will be widely shared.
These three species act as “canaries in the mine” and information about their presence or absence will
give vital and precise information about river health at different locations in the River Suir catchment.
The sea lamprey is a prehistoric fish with an unusual lifecycle, migrating into the River Suir to spawn
after spending much of its life at sea sometimes predating on basking sharks.
Freshwater pearl
mussels are Ireland’s longest living creature, capable of reaching 140 years of age, but are under severe threat due to pollution across the country but especially in rivers in the South East.
White clawed crayfish populations in the River Suir were wiped out in the 2018 crayfish plague which
ravaged most of our rivers.
It is just possible that some crayfish may have survived and the SuirCan survey will answer this question also.
All this vital data will be used to inform and drive efforts to protect and enhance river water quality.
The project was funded by the South Tipperary Leader Partnership and LAWPRO (Local Authority Waters Programme) with support from Inland Fisheries, National Parks and Wildlife Service and Tipperary County Council.
In his introduction to the awards ceremony, Alan Walsh, Communications
Lead from LAWPRO at Ballingarrane explained the significance of community involvement in this project which he said truly encapsulates the vital role played by concerned citizens in protecting our
environment.
He also noted the huge organisational challenges which had been successfully overcome in training the volunteers during lockdown and managing 120 different sites along the river.
Speaking to The Nationalist, Alan Moore wished to pay special tribute to the work of Aoife Egan the project co-ordinator and Theresia Guschlbauer from SuirCan for their key roles in driving this complex project forward, and he also thanked Dr Fran Igoe and Sheevaun Thompson from LAWPRO and Sara Bourke from Leader for their vital input.