The Project
Last updated: 17th November 2009


Gunnera tinctoria is an invasive species in Mayo and in 2006 Mayo County Council started a project to tackled the problem at hand. The project got funding from the Heritage Council's Biodiversity Grant, Mayo County Council and NPWS. It started as Masters project carried out at University College Dublin, looking at the use of herbicides to control this plant. The experiments ran over 2-3 years.
In 2007 the Heritage Council's Biodiversity Grant and Mayo County Council continued to fund the project, to both continue the experiments and to map the distribution on Achill Island, one of the worse affected areas in the County. With the information gathered from these projects an information leaflet and management plan were produced. In 2008-2009 Mayo County Council in conjunction with the National Botanic Gardens and continued funding from the Heritage Council started a control pro gramme on Clare Island, a special area of conservation with good possibilities of eradicating this plant.