It is a known fact that our impenetrable garden fences are attributing to the decline of hedgehogs by limiting the amount of habitat available to hedgehogs to roam. This quick 20min project is a start to putting things right - get yer wellies on.
In response to the Hedgehog Street campaign by The British Hedgehog Conservation Society and the Peoples' Trust for Endangered Species We dug a hole (it only needs to be 13cm x 13cm, 5"x5", under each of the fences bounding our garden to link our garden with the neighbouring gardens*.
This hole has become a smeuse for the resident squirrels and blackbirds
We gardeners are implicated in safeguarding our native biodiversity. We cannot urge other nations to safeguard tigers, elephants, gorillas, orangutans, panda bears et al if we are not prepared to go the extra mile needed to save our own threatened species. We need to change our view of our gardens as dominion for our own designs and acknowledge that we are only short-term caretakers of habitats which should be shared with the species we are displacing.
The London Wildlife Trust's 2011 report, From green to grey; observed changes in garden vegetation structure in London,1998-2008, assessed among other aims the amount of garden in the boroughs of London available for supporting biodiversity (p5). Counting front and back gardens as separate plots it tallied 3.8 million individual private garden plots. It estimated the total land area of garden available is approximately 37,900 ha (p.10), or 24% of Greater London. 22,000 ha of this is covered in some form of vegetation which is equal to 75% of the total area of all designated Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation in London (p19). Imagine the wildlife wonderland we'd create if we gardened to create a continuous corridor of micro habitats to support insects, amphibians, reptiles and small mammals to move about as they need.
*We would LOVE to hear from any peeps in Walthamstow who have hedgehogs visiting their gardens. We did a hands-up survey of our gardening club members and we're sad to report that not 1 out of 30 has a hedgehog visiting their garden and or allotment.
References: Smith, C., Dawson, D., Archer, J., Davies, M., Frith, M., Hughes, E. and Massini, P., 2011. From green to grey; observed changes in garden vegetation structure in London, 1998-2008 , London Wildlife Trust, Greenspace Information for Greater London, and Greater London Authority. Published 2011, London Wildlife Trust. © London Wildlife Trust, Greenspace Information for Greater London, and Greater London Authority, available online 20 September 2015,
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