THE National Trust has urged walkers on the Divis and Black Mountain to stick to the provided paths to prevent erosion and damage to wildlife.
 
Figures revealed by the Trust show that over 210,000 visitors to Divis and the Black Mountain in 2020, an increase of nearly 20 per cent from the previous year.
It’s expected this number will only rise as people continue to enjoy the benefits of spending time in nature. However, the surge in popularity has seen increased landscape erosion as walkers wander off the beaten track.
 
Craig Somerville, lead ranger at the Trust, explained: “We fully appreciate the benefits that spending time in nature can bring, so it’s wonderful to see so many people enjoying the outdoors this year.
 
“It’s also fantastic to see people putting safety first as they step aside to allow a safe, social distance for fellow walkers. What people might not realise however, is that stepping off, and then continuing to walk off the path, is starting to erode the landscape at a rapid rate.”
He said the popular Divis and the Black Mountain Summit Trail has seen a “huge increase in footfall resulting in damage to the path surface, and path ‘creep’ causing erosion to the grass verge as people step off the path”.
 
“Once vegetation is lost through erosion, soil and stone can quickly wash off the mountain. This general loss of habitat and degradation can affect heathland flora species such as heathers, mosses and flowering plants like potentilla and bog asphodel,” he said.

“It can also affect other rare mountain plants already at risk and living at the very edge of their range.”
 

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Divis and the Black Mountain is a patchwork of upland heath containing blanket bog, wet heath, rush pasture and acid grassland.
 
Blanket bog is a key habitat for sphagnum moss, a plant that can hold up to 20 times its own weight in water. The plant creates peatlands by locking away huge amounts of carbon and plays a vital role in preventing further climate change.
 
“We know that this delicate natural balance is being disrupted as more visitors explore the mountain, so we need to do all we can to protect the landscape,” Craig added.
“One way of doing this is by improving the trail network so people can enjoy the walks, without damaging the very nature they have come to enjoy.”
 

In January 2021 the Trust was successful in securing £59,000 of funding from the DAERA Environment Fund to carry out conservation and access improvements to the Summit Trail.

Works got underway in February this year to upgrade a 680m section of the Summit path including naturalisation of the path to mirror the surrounding landscape, improving the surface of the path, improved drainage and habitat restoration of the adjacent path area.
 
Environment Minister Edwin Poots MLA said: “I am aware that our natural green spaces are being visited more than ever. This is great to see as people get more connected to nature and gain health and well-being benefits. This does however put pressure on visitor infrastructure and our natural heritage. Maintenance of such services is essential, and I am happy that my Department was able to support the vital work that the National Trust is undertaking at Divis and the Black Mountain.”