Twiggy, Ben Fogle, Bill Oddie and Chris Beardshaw are backing Wild About Gardens Week this autumn and urging gardeners to save hedgehogs. The annual celebration of garden wildlife hosted by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and The Wildlife Trusts has joined forces with Hedgehog Street this year to highlight what gardeners can do to help this much-loved yet fast-declining species. See wildaboutgardensweek.org.uk for inspiration, competitions, events and booklet.

High profile supporters of Wild About Gardens Week explain how we can all help:

Ben Fogle, Patron, British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), says:
“Everybody loves hedgehogs! It’s a tragedy that they are disappearing so quickly particularly when it’s so easy to help them. We can all have a go at planting a native hedge, creating gaps in fences for them to pass through, leaving leaf or log piles and allowing parts of the garden to grow wild to give them a home.”

Chris Beardshaw, RHS Ambassador for Community Gardening and patron of BHPS, says:
“As gardeners, we often forget that that the garden is a refuge for our smaller visitors, many of whom have directed and influenced our appreciation of the outdoor environment. Thanks to starring roles in children’s poetry and prose, the likes of bats, owls and squirrels have all played a part, not just in opening our eyes to our gardens and landscape, but as a major connection to our childhood. Some of these distinctive creatures are in decline, in particular the hedgehog – a curiously shy creature which asks very little of gardeners. In fact they even allow us to be a little untidy as they use the leaves and logs for habitat and in return they will munch happily on the molluscs ravaging our favoured plants. When we are tending our gardens please give some thought for the residents and visitors who can benefit from our green spaces and reward us in so many ways.”

Bill Oddie, The Wildlife Trusts’ Vice President, says:
“I can honestly say that I have not come across a wild hedgehog anywhere – whether in the woods or countryside or garden or my garden – for something like three or four years. That is really sad because, let’s face it, they’re one of these little creatures which everyone knows – Mrs Tiggywinkle. It’s an animal that everybody loves. Nobody’s frightened of them. Hedgehogs do a fantastic job in your garden munching up worms in particular, the odd slug occasionally and, I dare say, they’ve been known to crunch open a few snails. Basically the hedgehog is the gardener’s friend. There’s no two ways about that. But not just that they are a delightful addition to your garden fauna –the birds, the animals, the insects – the hedgehogs, they belong there. We need them. They should be part of it. But if you are lucky enough to have them, you’ve got to make it possible for them to get in and to get out. Think of it as the hedgehog door – to food, to adventure and the way back home.”

Twiggy, Patron of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, says:
“Seeing hedgehogs in our garden when I was a child was a magical experience. Now we all need to help these special mammals – and there’s so much that gardeners can do to reverse their decline. You can cut a small hedgehog hole at the bottom of your garden fence, leave wild nesting and hibernation areas, ditch the slug pellets and check that bonfire before striking the match! All so easy to do. Please help these wonderful creatures.”

Hedgehogs are in trouble – research by People’s Trust for Endangered Species shows that hedgehogs have declined by 30% in the last 10 years alone and there are now thought to be fewer than one million left in the UK. To help encourage people across Britain to think about how to make their gardens, schools and community spaces hedgehog-friendly, this year’s Wild About Gardens Week will be a call to action and a celebration of the humble hedgehog, packed with events, competitions and opportunities to get stuck in. This will include:

• A national call to action to create hedgehog holes in fences – a handy 13cm by 13cm template can be downloaded from the Wild About Gardens Week website.

• A competition to design the best hedgehog home. There will be three categories: individual, group and school. The prizes will range from a trail camera to a visit from a hedgehog expert. Closing date: Monday 9 November 2015.

• A host of hedgehog-themed events around the UK, from talks and workshops to community activities. At RHS Garden Harlow Carr, a new garden will be launched in participation with Hedgehog Street, showcasing hedgehog friendly planting and design.

Add your event or search for those happening near you at: www.wildaboutgardensweek.org.uk/events

Hedgehog Street
Hedgehog Street is a campaign by People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) aimed at ensuring the hedgehog, the UK’s only spiny mammal, remains a common and familiar part of British life. We know hedgehogs are in trouble. We’ve lost a third of all our hedgehogs in ten years. Fortunately, hedgehogs love gardens, and there are around half a million hectares of garden in the UK. Hedgehogs need access to lots and lots of different gardens to survive, so this campaign is as much about getting people to cooperate as it is about gardening for wildlife.

Wherever you live, the green space in your local area can be a vital refuge for hedgehogs. Hedgehog sightings are recorded through several annual wildlife surveys and an independent study (The State of Britain’s’ Hedgehogs) was commissioned by People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) in September 2010 to compare the results of data gathered from these surveys over the last 15 years.

This review has allowed PTES and BHPS to establish clear scientific evidence of the decline in hedgehog populations across the UK. PTES and BHPS launched Hedgehog Street together in June 2011 to encourage hedgehog conservation action at a local community or neighbourhood level. Over 34,000 volunteer “Hedgehog Champions” up and down the country have registered to help to date and the campaign is ongoing, but we still need your help to make a difference. In 2013, PTES also published a long-term trend analysis based on their Living with Mammals and Mammals on Roads surveys which showed that hedgehog populations have plummeted by over a third in the last ten years.

www.hedgehogstreet.org