Habitat, hydrology and management data collation and collection on callows and floodplain grasslands

Tender description

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), part of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DCHG), is seeking to procure expert scientific/technical services for a review, collation, digitising and write-up of existing data from a suite of callows and floodplain grassland sites across Ireland, along with habitat mapping, hydrology and ownership investigations, and a review of effective management practices. The final report and outputs will be used by the NPWS to guide and underpin future management and conservation decisions relating to callows and floodplain grasslands in Ireland. The contract will run from mid-2020 to October 2021. Floodplains are areas which are found adjacent to rivers onto which excess water flows when a river channel cannot contain the volume, usually due to heavy or sustained rainfall. The focus of this work is on areas supporting semi-natural habitats. In Ireland, the word callow is often used interchangeably with floodplain – it originates from the Irish work ‘caladh’, which can mean harbour, but also river meadow. The word callow is most typically applied to the Shannon system. Within floodplain grasslands and callows there can be a mosaic of other habitats such as marshes, tall herb fens, drains, etc. (and on higher/drier ground, scrub and woodland), but grassland (or herb-rich habitats) are the focus of this project (i.e. peatlands, areas dominated by woody species, areas with large extents of open water, etc. are generally excluded). However, in all cases, floodplains are best looked at on a scale larger than field or farm, so a mix of habitats may be present in reality. See RfT document for further information.