SuirCan members inform Clonmel Show crowds about their River Suir activities

Three very popular stands at this year’s Clonmel Agricultural Show featured environmental topics.

SuirCan Environmental  members presented information about their activities in the community at the show.
SuirCan from Clonmel are involved in a range of River Suir related projects.
Their stand presented the results of their heritage award winning study of threatened river species.
This was a cutting edge project where 40 citizen scientist volunteers took water samples at 120 sites along the river looking for DNA evidence of freshwater pearl mussels, white clawed crayfish and sea lamprey.
Dr Aoife Egan who led the study told visitors to the stand that the Suir still has surviving populations of these creatures but only in small amounts.
“The river is under threat and has declined in quality by 40% over the last ten years. Our results show the need for urgent action,” she said.
WATER QUALITY
The main causes of poor water quality are nutrient run off from agriculture (slurry and artificial fertiliser) and leaking septic tanks.
The SuirCan stand was also recruiting volunteers to help with another river study, this time mapping two invasive plants, Himalayan Balsam and Giant Hogweed. Enquiries to suircanclonmel@gmail.com