Habitat heroes help create hedgerow havens - Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust
BBOWT and Buckinghamshire Council are celebrating the conclusion of a successful three-year project that has created and restored more than 5km of hedgerows and other vital habitats for wildlife to thrive in.
The Hedgerow Havens project has also created 12 new wildlife ponds and helped enhance eight hectares of land in and around Aylesbury for mammals such as badgers, insects like butterflies and especially farmland birds including kestrels, bunting and linnets.
The project worked with more than 100 volunteers and supporters from 11 different parishes, helped set up six new wildlife groups and worked with 19 landowners including farmers, homeowners, charities and estates. Among its successes was the creation of a 4.2ha wildflower meadow on the banks of the River Ray in Quainton.
Marcus Militello, BBOWT's Hedgerow Havens officer, said: "We are so immensely proud of everything we have accomplished with this project over three-and-a-half years. It’s not just about hedgerows - the huge amount of valuable wildlife habitat that we have created, restored and enhanced will provide homes and hunting grounds for so many struggling species that we want to protect. Each of these areas forms part of the jigsaw of connected spaces for wildlife that BBOWT wants to create across our whole area, to make sure our region can really sustain wildlife populations in the long-term. And we’re so delighted that more than 100 people from all over Buckinghamshire are now truly invested in projects that are really helping local wildlife - and they now have skills and knowledge which mean they can carry on helping local wildlife for years to come."
Hedgerow Havens was launched in 2018 by BBOWT and what was then Aylesbury Vale District Council – now Buckinghamshire Council – with the aim of enhancing wildlife habitats in the rural farmed environment.
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Posted On: 23/09/2021