Black To Green
Project Summary for Applicants
April 2015
The Heart of the Forest is an area of 10 square miles
in the coalfield area of South Derbyshire and North
West Leicestershire. Within the last 20 years woodland cover has increased from 1% to 27%. It is an
exceptional story of rapid change from 19th century
extractive industries to a 21st century sustainable
landscape led by the creation of The National Forest.
The Black to Green project aims to connect people
with this rapid landscape-scale change, co-ordinating
and supporting communities and landowners to
work together to make the most of the new forested
environment.
The project focuses on achieving four aims:
Aim 1. To create a greater understanding and appreciation of the area’s natural and industrial heritage.
Aim 2. Increased stewardship amongst local communities of the Heart of the Forest’s heritage.
Aim 3. To build improved capacity and strengthened governance of the Heart of the Forest Forum and associated groups, enabling
opportunities for sustainable funding and
partnership working in the long term.
Aim 4. To facilitate improved conservation and
management of the area’s natural and industrial heritage.
The project has been designed to meet the priority
needs and projects that have been identified by the
Heart of the Forest Forum. The Forum advocates on
behalf of the area, consulting with local communities
to address needs and priorities through a series of
Working Groups.
The Black to Green project will be delivered over
three years through three work strands:
STRAND 1. HERITAGE AT THE HEART
The delivery of the Heart of the Forest Interpretation and Orientation Masterplan will bring a sense of
place to the area by promoting integrated interpretation across multiple sites, supported by an app and
website with an augmented reality experience, helping people to engage with and learn about the story
of landscape change in the Heart of the Forest.
STRAND 2. PEOPLE AT THE HEART
An innovative programme of activities and outreach
to engage new audiences will provide new opportunities for a wide range of people at all stages of
life, matching their interests and availability and
removing the barriers to participation that have been
evidenced in consultation.
Through this comprehensive programme of community engagement, education and training, Black to
Green will bring landowners and local communities
together to increase understanding, appreciation
and stewardship of the Heart of the Forest’s natural
and industrial heritage.
This will include:
A programme of conservation activities.
A Community Wood-fuel Project.
Group development training.
A Youth Forum.
A Bespoke Youth Work Project.
A schools teacher and community group leaders
training programme.
The construction of a Bird-hide and Sand martin
Wall for a new bird watching group.
The Black to Green BioBlitz.
A range of activities to celebrate the industrial
heritage.
Donisthorpe Youth Club consultation event
STRAND 3. HABITATS AT THE HEART
Landowners and communities will collaborate to
manage the natural heritage of the Heart of the Forest to deliver the best gains for biodiversity, making
the most of the landscape change and the rapid
greening and reforestation that has taken place over
the last 20 years.
This will include:
The identification and recording of wildlife species.
Co-ordination, storage and management of ecological records.
Presenting of an up to date picture of the area’s
wildlife.
Interpretation of data by specialist ecologists to
plan for future enhancement.
A new habitat catalyst fund to help groups demonstrate habitat management on the ground.
These three strands of work will be supported by a
promotional programme which will include the sharing of lessons learnt and best practice, together with
a robust monitoring and evaluation programme.
Moira Pottery 1930’s
Sustainability is a key factor of the Black to Green
project. Building on developed governance and
stronger partnership working, an output at the end
of the project will be a legacy plan in the form of
a Landscape Conservation Action Plan. This will
highlight the lessons learnt and develop a plan for
delivering future activities for the project area and its
partners.
The key public benefits of this proposal lie in:
Implementing a comprehensive programme of
community consultation and engagement, active participation, volunteering, and educational
activity.
Providing and promoting public access to the
Heart of the Forest’s natural and industrial heritage with co-ordinated interpretation promoting
a sense of place.
Landowners working together, providing landscape-scale management to bring about the best
social, environmental and economic gains.
A strategic programme of surveys and assessment work to investigate the area’s ecological
interest and inform management guidance to
improve biodiversity.
A celebration of the Heart of the Forest’s industrial heritage.
Contributing towards many local, national and
regional strategies for public access, engagement
and biodiversity.
Working in partnership with the local community,
local landowners, local authorities and a range of
special interest groups to ensure that the project
meets best practice, need and demand.
Financial summary
The National Forest Company has been successful in
gaining HLF grant support of £770K which is 70% of
the total three year project costs of £1.1m
The match funding target is £330k which includes
£122k from volunteer time. The project currently
has £154k secured which is 74% of the £208k target
(ie. not including volunteer time).
All year one match funding is secure and a comprehensive fundraising strategy is in place to secure the
remaining match funding.
Volunteers attending a community Black to Green wood-fuel pilot day
April 2014