Grasslands Monitoring Project 2006

The Grassland Monitoring Project 2006 represents the initial phase of a larger grassland survey which is designed to meet the monitoring and conservation objectives of the Habitats Directive. The Grassland Monitoring Project 2006 is initially focusing on the two priority Annex I grassland habitats: *Semi-natural dry grasslands and scrubland facies on calcareous substrates (Festuco-Brometalia) (6210) and *Species-rich Nardus grasslands on siliceous substrates in mountain areas (6230). The project concentrated on the assessment of these two categories only within those candidate Special Areas of Conservation (cSACs) which list either of these two grassland habitats as qualifying interests, where an assessment of Representativity is deemed to be C or higher. The assessment and monitoring structure employs rapid and simple assessment techniques, deriving information from vegetation surveys and from assessments of threats and management practices. The results of the survey indicate that the condition of semi-natural dry calcareous grasslands (and orchid-rich semi-natural dry calcareous grasslands) in Ireland is generally poor. Of the 31 sites assessed, the Structure and Functions of the grassland was considered favorable at only two sites (6%). In fact, the Structure and Functions at 21 of the sites (68%) were deemed to be unfavorable bad with the remaining eight sites (26%) considered unfavorable inadequate. The results of the survey indicate that the condition of species-rich Nardus grassland in Ireland is generally poor. In fact, the Structure and Functions of the grassland was considered unfavorable – bad at all 7 sites.