Who We Are
The Maigue Rivers Trust was established in 2016. The trust has eleven directors drawn from sectors which represent a range of social, economic and environmental interests.
Our Mission
“To protect, enhance and cherish the rivers and lakes of the Maigue catchment for the benefit and enjoyment of all.”
What We Do
The trust aims to work with local communities to ensure that the rivers and lakes of the Maigue catchment can achieve their full potential both environmentally and recreationally.
Trust Directors
Our Aims & Objectives are to:
- Create awareness through education programmes, outdoor classrooms and school visits.
- Encourage community participation by developing networks of interest groups who can input into the trust’s action plans and providing opportunities for volunteers to get involved in helping enhance the river
- Improve water quality by working with sectoral interests to minimise impacts.
- Improve fish habitat and fish numbers by carrying out in-stream works, gaining a better understanding of current fish stocks and seeking funding for research and fishery management initiatives.
- Protect biodiversity by improving habitat for otter, kingfishers and other species and carrying out catchment wide biodiversity assessments.
- Control invasive plants such as Giant Hogweed, Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam which can seriously affect the biodiversity and amenity value of a river corridor.
- Encourage the local angling tradition by supporting juvenile angling programmes and competition and by supporting angling clubs in the catchment.
- Develop amenity access to the river for recreational activities such as walking, kayaking, archaeology.
Our History
The Maigue Rivers Trust grew out of a pilot project on the River Loobagh which was run in 2015.
The local farmers, anglers community groups and interested individuals got together with the Inland Fisheries Ireland and Limerick City and County Council to explore a new way of looking after our rivers and lakes. They wanted to find a way that didn’t rely on regulations, but rather on the community becoming stewards of their local waterways.
The local anglers and a group of interested individuals got together with the Inland Fisheries Ireland and Limerick City and County Council to explore a new way of looking after our rivers and lakes. They wanted to find a way that didn’t rely on regulations, but rather on the community becoming stewards of their local waterways.
Several exciting ventures came about as a result of this partnership: Physical works were under taken in the river channel to improve the habitat for fish.
The Streamscapes education and awareness programme was delivered to local schools and community groups
A study trip was under taken to the Ballinderry Rivers Trust in Co. Tyrone to look at this model of river management and see if it could be applied in Ireland.
It was this trip that inspired the creation of the trust. Initially, the plan had been to form a trust on the Loobagh, but the advice from our friends in Ballinderry was that the trust should cover an area from source to sea to be really effective and so, at a meeting of stakeholders from the wider Maigue Catchment which was held in Deebert House in January 2016, the decision was made to establish a trust on the River Maigue.
