The Hedgehog Friendly Campus campaign was established by Jo Wilkinson and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society to promote the plight of our native hedgehogs, who have been in decline over recent years. Alex Foxley-Johnson, who leads the Hedgehog Friendly Campus team at the University of Lincoln, explains the benefits of joining the campaign below:
Name of the Organisation:
Hedgehog Friendly Campus Lincoln
Type of case Study:
Business and Community
Please outline the project and how it includes sustainability / low carbon principles?
In 2019, the University of Lincoln joined the Hedgehog Friendly Campus initiative, a national campaign supported by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. The project aimed to make our campus hog-friendly through education, volunteering, and promotion of the national campaigns through Hedgehog Awareness Week. The project also included ensuring the environment in which hedgehogs live as safe and welcoming as possible.
Since then, we’ve gone on to achieve the Bronze, Silver, and most recently Gold award. We are one of the first universities in the country to reach this level of the campaign and are thrilled to be helping hedgehogs in our city.
You might be wondering what a Hedgehog Friendly Campus looks like… ours includes:
- Dedicated hedgehog “hogitats” including log piles, leaf piles and rewilded areas
- #BeTheirAmbulance – we keep an eye out on our local hedgehogs and take them to a wildlife friendly vet/rescue if necessary
- Stickers on our ground team’s gardening equipment to remind them to watch out for hedgehogs
- Regular campus and local area litter picks using our resident C.L.E.A.N hub kit
- Hedgehog surveying lessons – open to everyone – that allow us to record and monitor mammal populations locally
- Hedgehog Friendly Gardening sessions on campus
- Signage to ask drivers to Slow down for hedgehogs (more of this soon!)
- Research that will help hedgehogs – one of our Masters students is currently looking into a very interesting subject (we’ll share more details once she’s finished her course)
- A working group that consists of staff, students, senior leadership at our university, and members of the public
- Regular hedgehog related events; including fundraising for the British Hedgehog Society who fund this wonderful project
- Sharing best practice with other institutions
Bishop Grosseteste University also joined the campaign, and we've been collaborating with their team on a larger campaign to make Lincoln a hedgehog friendly city.
What benefits have you seen as a result of measures taken?
This campaign has improved connections between staff, students and the local community. It has also provided learning opportunities for those who want to create a wildlife-friendly habitat in their homes and on campus.
We have also raised the profile of hedgehogs and their decline in the UK.
On campus, there have been real benefits to wildlife and plant biodiversity; we rewilded several areas of our Brayford Campus and installed 4 “hogitats” (or log piles). We've counted over 30 Bee Orchids in our rewilded spaces. Our hedgehog population appears healthy and they are making use of the longer grass and hogitats.
How do you think this could be replicated across Lincoln?
We are working with both the national hogfriendly campaign and BGU on creating a guide for helping hedgehogs in Lincoln.
The campaign has also been rolled out to include schools and colleges this year, having previously only been available to universities. It is our hope to make Lincoln a hedgehog friendly city, and we will be campaigning for this heavily in the future.
Is there any further information you would like to share/include?
Our website: https://estates.lincoln.ac.uk/hogfriendly
Twitter: @uolhedgie
Facebook: @uolenvironment
We're interested in sharing success stories and case studies across Lincolnshire. If you have a project, community or business initiative, or are just doing something to benefit the environment personally, please do get in touch. You can email us at lincolnclimatecommission@gmail.com.
