The University of Lincoln has been awarded the Silver accreditation from the national Hedgehog Friendly Campus scheme.
Hedgehog populations have declined around 50% in rural areas and 30% in urban areas since just the year 2000. Taking part in Hedgehog Friendly Campus means that university communities can play an active role in helping hedgehogs to get back to healthy numbers.
After joining the campaign in 2019, Lincoln achieved Bronze in early 2020, and are one of twenty other institutions across the country to have achieved Silver in 2021. Almost 100 universities have currently registered to the campaign.
Alex Foxley-Johnson in one of the rewilded areas on the Brayford Campus.
To be awarded Silver, Universities must take actions that benefit our native hedgehog population, both locally and nationally.
Actions included creating hedgehog related events and campaigns to engage both the university community and members of the public in the plight of these native mammals. Webinars on Hedgehog First Aid, and Hedgehog Surveying at Home took place last year to give people the confidence to help hedgehogs in need and to identify where hedgehogs are in city.
The campaign also required the team to create log piles or “hogitats”; which support hedgehogs by fostering insect biodiversity and providing natural places for them to nest. The team also planted brambles and left areas on the Brayford Campus to rewild where possible. The long grass supports not only hedgehogs, but a variety of insects, small mammals, and birds as well.
As well as this, the University of Lincoln Hedgehog Friendly Campus team presented at the EAUC’s Sustainability webinar series to encourage other institutions to join the campaign.
This year, the team will start to work towards the Gold accreditation, whilst creating a guide to making Lincoln a hedgehog friendly city.
The Hedgehog Friendly Campus Scheme is funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.
If you’d like to join the Hedgehog Friendly Campus team at the University of Lincoln, please email environment@lincoln.ac.uk.
Read more sustainability news in our latest newsletter, Lockdown in nature: lncn.ac/nature12