Hedgehog Heroes: Contract Ecology signs up

Contract Ecology Ltd is delighted as a UK ecology and conservation contractor to be added to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society’s ‘Hedgehog Heroes Roll Of Honour’

Hedgehog heroes; As a habitat and mitigation contractor, a large part of Contract Ecology’s workload is vegetation clearance usually as part of a species mitigation project. Whereby habitat is manipulated to encourage animals to move in or out of a particular area in order to safeguard them.  Often too we are commissioned to provide landscape contractor services on public open spaces. Likewise wildflower meadow creation and grassland management for biodiversity gain are a popular means of enhancing natural areas and adding diversity to mitigation schemes for British wildlife.

Our ecologically trained team use a variety of low impact machinery to minimise the risk of harm to our native wildlife but strimmers and brushcutters do still pose a high risk of injury to one of Britain’s best loved and rapidly declining mammals, the hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus).

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society was founded in 1982 and offers help and advice to those with sick, injured or orphaned hedgehogs and maintains a list of rehabilitators in the UK.  As part of celebrations for the 2016 Hedgehog Awareness Week the society launched an awareness campaign.  Aimed specifically at local councils, hire depots and landscape contractors focussing on the risks to hedgehogs from common garden maintenance machinery.

Our ecologists and habitat contractors have signed up to the campaign and will happily check areas thoroughly before commencing with strimming and mowing operations.  And as a reminder we have agreed to display the specially produced British Hedgehog Preservation Society’s strimmer warning stickers on all our machinery.

As well as checking areas before undertaking vegetation clearance the society has also produced a list of other things we can all do to help hedgehogs:

  • Ensure there is hedgehog access in your garden – a 13cm x 13cm gap in boundary fences and walls.
  • Move piles of rubbish to a new site before burning it.
  • Ensure netting is kept at a safe height.
  • Check compost heaps before digging the fork in.
  • Stop or reduce the amount of pesticides and poisons used.
  • Cover drains or deep holes.
  • Ensure there is an easy route out of ponds and pools.

To find out more about hedgehogs and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society’s work please visit: http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/hedgehog-heroes-roll-honour/

To see how our team can help give a hedgehog a new home on your site by creating habitat piles and refuge click here: https://contractecology.co.uk/habitat-services/