€2.7 million has been spent on managing Rhododendron at Killarney National Park in the last five years.
That’s according to Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan.
He was responding to a parliamentary question about the infestation of Rhododendron at the park, by Fianna Fáil TD for Cork South West Christopher O’Sullivan.
Minister Noonan said the NPWS is committed to tackling the spread of invasive species across all national parks, and in particular the control of Rhododendron ponticum is difficult, costly, and labour intensive.
He said Rhododendron has been a major factor in the degradation of habitats at Killarney National Park, and efforts have been ongoing to tackle it for 40-50 years.
He outlined the current method of treating Rhododendron at Killarney National Park.
The first phase of this is monitoring, whereby the park is divided into zones, which allows staff to develop strategy for treatment.
The second is that the NPWS commissioned a review, setting a strategy for Rhododendron into the future; one recommendation was to develop management plans for each zone, and staff at the park are currently developing draft plans.
Minister Noonan says as well as this, treatment of Rhododendron is continuous, with work underway in the western woods, which will be resurveyed next year.
He said in the last five years, approximately €2.7 million has been spent on Rhododendron management at the park between treatment and monitoring, with close to 2,000 acres treated.
He added in the next five years, there will be a continued effort to move zones currently in follow up phase, to maintenance phase, and it’s hoped when the resurveying of the western woods is complete, a large area will be classed as being in maintenance phase.
