Hedgehogs are a priority species in the Dedham Vale Nature Recovery Plan. In the past decade over a half of rural hedgehogs and a third from towns and cities have been lost.

To try and stop further decline in the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) a grant was secured from the Dedham Vale Sustainable Development Fund to work with residents in East Bergholt to create a pilot Hedgehog Friendly Village project.

The AONB team worked with the East Bergholt futures group to promote the work of the project. There were many Facebook posts and articles written in the local parish magazine.

A Hedgehog Friendly Village postcard was delivered by volunteers to every house in the village encouraging residents to help create a hedgehog superhighway by making holes (13cm by 13cm) in their garden fences /walls.

Hedgehogs travel around one mile every night in their quest to find enough food and a mate so need linked-up gardens to survive. A hedgehog champion was on hand to help create holes and footprint tunnels /wildlife cameras were loaned out so villagers could check to see if these nocturnal mammals were visiting their gardens at night.

To see where hedgehog highways were being created villagers were encouraged to record their sightings and hedgehog holes on the Hedgehog Street website’s ‘Big Hedgehog map’.

The postcard also listed top tips for hedgehog friendly gardening, a topic which was promoted at 7 community events such as the East Bergholt Open Gardens, Flatford Nature Days and Hedgehog talk and tour around hedgehog friendly gardens.

25 hedgehog homes were built by the Stour Valley Volunteers to go into suitable gardens in the village and one hedgehog champion starred in a video promoting hedgehog friendly gardening, which can be viewed on our website.

To connect the village to the wider countryside and other parts of the village volunteers surveyed local footpaths and identified places where hedgerows could be planted /gapped up. Linking up habitats like this will hopefully help hedgehogs avoid roads to find food and a mate.

It’s been wonderful to work with the local community on this nature conservation project and to hear about the many hedgehog sightings. The East Bergholt Futures Group is now taking over the project with our support.

We have also received funding from DEFRA for more hedgehog boxes/ highway signs to be distributed to suitable gardens in the AONB.  After the success of the Hedgehog Friendly Village pilot in East Bergholt we look forward to expanding this project  to other villages in the Dedham Vale to help create greater garden connectivity and wildlife gardens across the AONB.

Emma Black, Countryside Projects Officer: emma.black@suffolk.gov.uk