Derwen College is working to become a Hedgehog Friendly Campus.
Hedgehog Friendly Campus is an innovative programme designed to help soften the blow of the ecological emergency.
Derwen College (Gobowen) is a large site which extends over 50 acres. As well as being home to students who learn and live on-site, the campus is also home to wildlife including a variety of birds, a family of ducks, rabbits, and hedgehogs!
What is a Hedgehog Friendly Campus?
The Hedgehog Preservation Society run the Hedgehog Friendly Campus programme. Hedgehog numbers have declined in recent decades – possibly by up to 75%. Whilst urban hedgehog numbers appear to be recovering, rural hedgehogs still need support in terms of appropriate habitats for them to live in.
Watch this video to find out out more about what a Hedgehog Friendly Campus is.
How Derwen is working towards becoming a Hedgehog Friendly Campus.
We are working towards ten goals to make Derwen’s Gobowen campus a hedgehog friendly place to live. These goals are:
- Learning what we can about our prickly friend.
Hedgehog House tunnel in the Woodland Walk - Completing hedgerow survey’s to assess the health of our hedgerows.
- Working with our horticulture team and the estate team to prevent accidents such as poisoning and injury through grass cutting.
- Completing a hedgehog hazard audit – in the woodland walk and our hedgerows.
- Organising litter picking events. These will aim to stop our hedgehogs being injured, or worse, from eating litter, or from getting stuck in packets that have been discarded.
- Preparing a display about keeping hedgehogs safe, and giving them a habitat that they can live in.
- Having a camera to record what our hedgehogs get up to under cover of dark!
This project is part of the Sustainability Curriculum at Derwen, in which we are teaching students about the difficulties our planet is facing. We learn how, by looking after nature, recycling, reducing waste and reusing items, we can all play a part in ensuring our planet and wildlife live on.
