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Quarries, Wildlife and Landscape We all know that mineral sites can be great for wildlife, often acting as a haven for species who would otherwise find it difficult to occupy an area. For instance, landscape buffer trees often form the largest area of woodland in the locality and act as a refuge for owls and other birds of prey, bats and a ‘laying up’ area for hares and other mammals.
provide a rich habitat for local wildlife. A number of the young people in the project completed their involvement by planting up on site. Russell Drew Environment & Estates Manager for Whitemountain said “We are proud to be part of this project – just as the young people are growing up and making a positive change to their local environment, so these trees will grow up and benefit the people and wildlife surrounding the Belfast Hills”.
Belfast Hills Partnership have been working for some time with our mineral producer partners along with other partners such as the Woodland Trust. We now want to offer an even wider range of assistance to quarries and other commercial companies to go beyond any woodland planting and other biodiversity improvements to maximise the positive impacts of site on local wildlife. A good example is a major planting project to the southern end of the Belfast Hills.
This scheme has created with the help of the Woodland Trust new broadleaf woodland on a 9ha site at the Lisburn end of the Belfast Hills owned by Whitemountain (part of the Breedon Group). These 13,000 trees – one
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Jim Bradley.
for every young person BHP worked with through its ‘Our Bright Future’ youth programme - will sequester over 3,000 tonnes of carbon and
A vital part of this project has been initial surveying, which identified a portion of the proposed site as already being of high biodiversity value, species rich grassland. The value of this site is greatly enhanced by the fact that it is adjacent to Slievenacloy, an Area of Special Scientific Importance
MPANI 2022 | 2023
