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Hedgehog friendly fencing

17th July 2023

Join our nationwide call for fencing companies to help hedgehogs

This summer we need your help as we ask fencing companies to offer pre-made hedgehog highway products.

Hedgehogs can travel 2km in a single night as they search for food and shelter, but sadly our garden fences and walls limit their movement.  Small 13cm square hedgehog highways through fences allow hedgehogs into our gardens, and are a vital way to safeguard the future of the species.

The fencing industry

In recent years we’ve worked with householders, ecologists and developers to install hedgehog highways and raise awareness of their importance. And now, we’re inviting fencing companies to get involved.

Some fencing manufacturers and suppliers already offer hedgehog friendly options such as gravelboards with ready-made hedgehog highway. This is fantastic news for hedgehogs, and we’d love to see more fencing companies offering such products, and raising awareness of them with customers.

Examples of hedgehog friendly gravel boards can be viewed below, and are currently offered by national companies including Jacksons and Birkdale, but check our list of companies to see more.

We need your help

We’d like as many companies as possible to pledge to help hedgehogs. So we’re asking you, our fantastic Hedgehog Champions, to write to fencing companies to urge them to pledge the below actions to help hedgehogs.

  • Incorporate more hedgehog friendly fencing options into their range.
  • Offer customers the option of having fences installed with hedgehog highways.
  • Raise awareness via information boards in store and webpages online.

We’ve put together a template letter which you can either post or email to both national and local fencing companies. Please feel free to tweak the letter and add your own thoughts. We’ve put a few suggestions for national companies to write to below, but local companies are just as important – so please contact those near you!

Download the template email here

We’ve also produced a template letter with weblinks written out, if you’d prefer to post letters.

Top tips

  • Please copy us into your emails, or let us know who you’ve approached, so we’re aware of who has been contacted – hedgehog@ptes.org
  • Add your own thoughts to the template letter; a personal touch of why you love hedgehogs and think they should be helped will be very powerful!
  • If you don’t hear back from a company, write to them again and ask them to consider your request.
  • It can take a long time for new products to be developed, so we’re asking companies to pledge to add relevant products to their range. We will be on hand to help with specifications and promotion.
  • If they have any questions, or would like more information – we can help! Put them in touch with us via hedgehog@ptes.org

Lead image by Christopher Morgan
Fence image courtesy of Jacksons Fencing

Hedgehog