The Green Party has stated that some of Belfast’s smaller grasslands are “at risk” from the city’s one million trees strategy.
At Belfast City Council ’s recent meeting of its Climate and City Resilience Committee, Green Councillor Brian Smyth voiced concern that the strategy posed a risk for grassland sites under four hectares.
He proposed, with support from other parties, that the council conduct habitat surveys with partners on all smaller sites proposed for tree planting, so species rich grasslands across the city would not be harmed.
Read more: Belfast residents being asked to give their views on plans for more city trees
The One Million Trees Programme has been running since 2020, a city-wide partnership with ambition to plant one million trees in Belfast by 2035, improving biodiversity, carbon capture, and reducing air pollution. Since the project began 63,500 trees have been planted across the city.
Belfast City Council is coordinating the initial phase of the project with 19 partners, and it is delivered by the Belfast Hills Partnership, the Woodland Trust, the council climate and trees teams.
However concerns have been raised that planting new trees in smaller grasslands around Belfast could damage biodiversity rather than improve it.
Green Councillor Brian Smyth told the council committee: “There are large amounts of important habitats, such as species rich grasslands, that are not included in the Northern Ireland Environment Agency’s protected and priority sites. In addition, many of our priority grassland habitats in Belfast will be in much smaller fragments, so it will not be picked up.
“In lieu of site assessment there is no clarity (in the report), and I would argue that some priority habitats are perhaps at risk from the one million trees strategy. In order to rectify this, an appropriate site survey should be undertaken, to ascertain what type of habitat is on each selected site, where trees are to be planted.
“A Phase One habitat survey is a standard recognised and simple survey methodology that should be undertaken to ensure that the project has biodiversity credibility. One that many planning applications are already required to undertake.”
He added: “And for everyone who is going to come back at me about costs - from speaking to people in the field, it doesn’t need an expensive consultant, simply one that can be considered capable and competent by NIEA.
“I have met staff from the council, from Belfast Hills, the Woodland Trust who agree graduates from our universities could be capable of taking these assessments. If we want this scheme to have biodiversity credibility we need to demonstrate it.
“There are trees going into places where there isn’t ecological experience and people don’t have the knowledge of species rich grassland, who rely on desktop assessment, when not all these grasslands are mapped out by NIEA. And those that are, have incomplete data sets.
“Four hectares is huge when it comes to a parcel of grassland, and a lot of our species rich grassland in this city are under four hectares, so there is a need to correctly map this out. It is a relatively rapid process, one our partners can carry out correctly.”
A council officer said: “I think you will find that is happening ad hoc through the delivery team and through the site studies that are done. A site visit always takes place. But we would be happy to pin that process down, and have it agreed formally through the steering group.”
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