Hi folks. Welcome to Divis and the Black Mountain. My name is Nick Wilson. I'm a Ranger for the Belfast team here,
and I'm going to give you a great look behind the scenes at this wonderful landscape.
Divis and the Black Mountain is one of 11 of our Belfast sites here.
It is such a fantastic site because it is the biggest open green space in Belfast,
spanning almost 2,000 acres on the shoulders of the hills. It's a fantastic walk to clear your head,
and it's filled with brilliant wildlife and brilliant habitats to see.
So as a Ranger our job is very physical around any of the sites we work in.
Since Covid and lockdown we've had a massive surge in visitors to our site which is absolutely fantastic.
We love to see people getting out but of course this brings wear and tear to our places.
So my day-to-day job could be anything from emptying bins and lifting a lot of litter to repairing
steps and fence lines to help secure the site, but can also go in the spring and summer months
the grass cutting, scything. And up on Divis we love to do our butterfly surveys which are super important
to help us understand our populations of different species.
So up at Divis and the Black Mountain we have so many different projects we would love to do, so to hear more about this and
maybe other projects we're going to hear from Sean Maxwell our Climate and Environment Advisor.
The peatland area that we manage here is really important, not just for nature, but also for our climate commitments.
The carbon potential that it has to store and manage is really important for our net zero contributions.
And we want to make sure that we look after it in the best possible way that we can.
Belfast city is just across the ridge here and it's also important for that area
because it performs a really important ecosystem service which is water management.
The blanket bog here is a potential to capture, store, and hold back water in times of really intense rainfall.
And as the climate changes we'll see intense rainfall happening more frequently.
We want to make sure that we can continue to look after this place forever for everyone,
so it's also important that we allow visitors to access it and maintain accessibility.
There's important work going on with local Belfast city organisations to ensure that
we can maintain and enhance the accessibility of this special wilderness on the edge of an urban fringe.
As Climate and Environment Advisor for the National Trust in Northern Ireland
it's my job to help teams across the region ensure best practice when it comes to environmental management.
Much of the landscape here at Divis and the Black Mountain is covered in peat and heathland.
Peat bog is really important because it has the ability to capture carbon
from the atmosphere and store it in the ground. We're looking at the ways that this peatland bog
can help us meet our climate commitments including our commitment to be net zero by 2030.
Next we're going to hear from Peter Moore who is the Divis Transformation Project Manager.
Hi. My name is Peter Moore and I am Project Manager for Divis and the Black Mountain Transformation Project.
Well Divis and the Black Mountain is the largest area of green space in Belfast urban fringe.
It's 2,000 acres of freely accessible green space which actually really
nicely aligns with Octavia Hill's vision and why the National Trust was founded.
We took this land on in 2004-2005 and we're really trying to make it fit for purpose in the modern era.
We've seen visitor numbers grow continually as people thirst for outdoor space and access to nature.
And we want to make the site welcoming for everyone as well as that we have
a range of exciting ecological projects to do within that. Here in Northern Ireland we've just legislated
climate agenda. So we're tying in with that in the Northern Ireland peatland strategy,
as well as creating a space that people can access within the wider Belfast hills as well.
But for the local community specifically we've reached out to them extensively as part of the project and
one of the things that we get asked for a lot is variety of access. So currently people would
tend to arrive to the site by car. We're trying to change that.
We've been working closely with Translink to trial various public transport options.
And also pedestrian access, footfall access. It's greener but it gives people that headspace that they seem to crave.
And so we can access the site by foot from the city, from the urban sprawl of Belfast itself.
We've reached out to the community quite a lot and asked what they want to see.
So this is being led, co-created if you will, by the community and their asks. And for me it was quite humbling.
What the community came back and asked us for was quite basic stuff and we intend to deliver on that
so that this site is fit for purpose for the communities that surround Divis and the Black Mountain.
Well folks we hope you've enjoyed your little sneak peek behind the scenes of what the National Trust
are doing here at Divis and the Black Mountain. We'd like to extend a massive thank you to all
our members and supporters. As well as you folks none of this great work would be possible.