There are a lot of hedgehog friendly initiatives happening at the Haxby Road Spots Centre. Simon from the Grounds team has kindly shown me around to share the initiatives that has been taken.

There are currently 4 hedgehog houses located across the Haxby Road Sports Centre with log piles left for hedgehogs, invertebrates and mammals in various location at the site. We are hoping to do some hedgehog surveys in the coming months so it will be interesting to find out if these houses are being used.

There are areas where nature is left to grow to encourage greater biodiversity.

The Haxby Road site is also home to our YSJ community allotment, wildlife pond, bee hive and various bird boxes too (birdboxes include tailor-made boxes for Tawny owls, woodpeckers, small birds like blue tits and more).

We have also planted mixed native hedge at the site, including Hawthorn, Blackthorn and Rosa.

It is lovely to see so many wildlife habitat initiatives that are happening at Haxby Road Sports Centre site.

We hope you are all well.

York St John University held their first ever Green Week, week commencing 15 March. There were various online webinars and activities that students/staff could get involved in relation to sustainability. We kicked off the week by delivering the ‘How to Help Hedgehogs’ webinar hosted by Jo Wilkinson from Hedgehog Friendly Campus.

This is a very useful webinar which not only gives backgrounds on Hedgehogs but also on how to spot an injured hedgehog and how you can help them.

There has been a few hedgehogs spotted at our campus so you might spot a hedgehog on campus one day.  Take a look at this this webinar to find out more! 

 

Staff at York St. John University have always been aware of the presence of hedgehogs around campus and in my first month as a member of the gardening team I was shown a nesting hedgehog!

Hedgehog numbers have plummeted by half in UK countryside since 2000 but urban hedgehogs may offer a glimmer of hope.

The grounds team have made provisions for them for example by providing hedgehog houses made by the in house joinery department and by managing gardening practices to help them.

This is why we have decided to go for hedgehog friendly campus ‘Bronze’ certification through Hedgehog Friendly Campus https://www.greenimpact.org.uk/hedgehogfriendlycampus and in doing so hope to educate ourselves further and raise awareness of hedgehogs to staff and students at York St. John University.

Awareness day 

On Thursday 12 December staff hosted an awareness day with information for staff and students and were able to raise funds for the hedgehog preservation society. Hedgehog Friendly Campus is wholly funded by Hedgehog preservation society. https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/

There are hedgehogs on campus often living in the shrubbery and we have put out bespoke hedgehog houses on different sites; this include log piles and we put out water bowls in warm weather.

 

What can you do to help?

Here are a few pointers

• Keep dogs on a lead
• Cycle slowly around campus
• Pick up litter
• Do not use pesticides or slug pellets in your wildlife garden
• Leave out water bowls
• Only feed hedgehog approved food (refresh daily)
• Leave space under fences for hedgehogs to get under
• If you find a sick or injured hedgehog/ a hedgehog out in the day contact the garden team or ….

Further info can be found at https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/