The Wildlife Service is preparing to take legal action against a landowner who recently levelled a mile of protected sand dunes at the Murrough, just north of Wicklow town. After two earth-movers had started work on the area, the Wildlife Service wrote to the landowner by registered post, telling him to stop as the dunes were located in a designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
Alerted by walkers who had seen the work in progress, Wicklow County Council sent an engineer to inspect the site. However, no action was taken as the council believed that no planning permission was required for such work.
A week ago, the earth-moving work was completed and the former dunes were "flattened", according to Mr Peter Evans, a local architect. "It's just like a billiard table now. Everything that was there is gone."
The damaged area of dunes, extending from the edge of Wicklow town to a disused station at Killoughter, on the DublinRosslare railway line, was recently acquired by a Co Carlow businessman, who said he was reseeding it for grazing.
Mr Evans said it was regarded as the "jewel in the crown" in terms of Co Wicklow's coastline and was widely used by locals for walks. "It's the same as if someone went down to Brittas Bay and bulldozed it," he said.
Mr Pat Warner, a senior manager with the Wildlife Service, said it was carrying out an investigation into the extent of the damage, with a view to prosecuting the landowner under the 1997 regulations which protect SACs.
He said areas designated as SACs under the EU Habitats Directive were "of the highest level of importance in the European context" and could not be damaged by landowners without prior authorisation from the Wildlife Service.
"There is prima-facie evidence that serious damage has been done to this area," Mr Warner told The Irish Times. "We have powers to require the owner to reinstate the dunes or to do the work ourselves and bill him for it."
He added that the fens behind the damaged dunes and the shingle strand, which stretches from Wicklow town to the outskirts of Greystones, were of "very great value" in wildlife terms, with 38 species breeding in the area.
Mr Anthony McEleron, the Wildlife Service ranger for the area, said the dunes had been held together by long-established marram grass. With this now gone, he believed the flattened dunes would be "washed into the sea" by a storm.
He said previous owners had been planning an airstrip but they were refused permission. In the most recent works, a disused two-storey house on the site "got a belt from one of the Hymacs".
