RSPB NI: The beginning of new life on Trasna Island after major habitat restoration

Between 2019 to 2024, the charity undertook extensive habitat restoration, including the removal of trees and scrub from the shoreline to create five hectares of wet grassland, which is feeding habitat for breeding waders. The team started to see the benefits of their efforts with curlew and other breeding waders fledging young at the site for the first time since the 1980’s.   

Amy Burns, RSPB NI’s Lower Lough Erne Estate Manager said, “I am over the moon that Curlew and other waders have responded so positively to the work we’ve undertaken on Trasna. We’ve recorded fledging success with Curlew, but also with Lapwing, Oystercatcher and Snipe as well. It’s great to see that conservation works, and to see breeding waders starting to call Trasna home”.   

The land on Trasna Island was previously unmanaged, but research during the project uncovered photographs from the 1920’s depicting an open, farmed landscape, which was ideal for breeding Curlews. These images inspired the vision for the habitat restoration works, to restore the island with potential for breeding waders. The landscape of Trasna is now similar as when it was farmed by the ‘Queen of Trasna’, Peggy Elliott. Also known as ‘Orange Peggy’, who lived there until 1891 when she passed away at the age of 108.     

This restoration project would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of many individuals and organisations. RSPB NI has been working alongside the Lough Erne Landscape Partnership, funded primarily by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the CurlewLIFE project, whose support, along with initial funding from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, which enabled RSPB NI to acquire Trasna in 2017.

For more information or to support RSPB NI’s work, click here.