Natural History Wanderings

The New York Times reports

Is Ireland really all that green? Ecologically speaking, the answer is no, says Eoghan Daltun, a sculptor who restored a patch of native rainforest in the Beara Peninsula, on the country’s rugged southwestern coast.

“Ireland really coasts on its reputation as the Emerald Isle,” Mr. Daltun said in a recent interview at his West Cork home. “There is this perception that because it rains a lot in Ireland, and everything is green, and everything grows easily, that nature is doing great here.”

But nature in Ireland is not doing great. Earlier this month, the country’s Environmental Protection Agency published a report that rated Ireland’s environmental health as “poor.”

Read more at Much of the Emerald Isle Is an Ecological Desert. He’s Trying to Change That.