The issue

Under legislation, and to provide continuity of supply across the network to our customers, NIE Networks have a requirement to ensure a minimum safety clearance of overhanging trees.  In line with agreed Industry standards, our in-house and contracting partner Utility Arborists complete a rotational cutting cycle of both Distribution and Transmission overhead lines at set frequencies across all of Northern Ireland.  In order to achieve the required clearance we have to fell thousands of trees each year – this affects local biodiversity and habitat provision.

What NIE Networks did

In order to off-set some of the disturbance to nature we set an ambitious target of planting two new native species trees for every one we fell.  We approached The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), a charity we had previously worked with, with this suggestion of expanding our existing planting arrangement and also provision of continued work for them.  They were more than happy to partner with us on this and with their previous experience of running such programmes, launched an appeal for landowners and community groups to come forward where NIE Networks would provide and plant the trees for them.  Using our own staff on volunteer days alongside the groups involved and TCV volunteers, we laid out a programme to ramp up to the 52,000 tree target within five years as the TCV nursery evolves to facilitate this number.

In achieving this goal, we have worked with community organisations suggested by our own staff and a wide variety of other schools, councils, sports clubs etc where planting has seen anything from 10 to 1,000 native species trees being planted per site to help encourage native flora and fauna to thrive again.

In order to assist TCV in delivering this partnership and have a minimal impact on the environment we also provided them with an Electric Vehicle.  Some of our patrolling employees have also gathered native seeds that have been prepared and used at the TCV nursery in growing new trees.  Again, employees helped with cultivating the seeds at the nursery.

Impacts & Outcomes

• Assures customers that we are helping off-set tree loss in maintaining their supply
• Felled trees get a ‘second life’ through seed development at the tree nursery
• Employee involvement in getting back to nature and helping to give a little something back
• In Y1 we planted 10,000 trees then in Y2 this rose to 14,000, Y5 will see 52,000 trees planted
• Planting can be seen as nature positive from seed collection to a new whip tree being replanted elsewhere via the EV
• Provision of new habitat for local wildlife

To find out more about taking part in the NI Environmental Benchmarking Survey, visit www.bitcni.org.uk/niebs.