Community project ideas
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Hi, I volunteer for a charity that looks after a local area of green space consisting of some scrub, wetland, woodland and a couple of fields. It’s about 1km long in total.
We did a hedgehog survey in 2017 with 10 tunnels and found that the two tunnels with positive prints were located near houses. We put 10 hedgehog boxes around the area with 6 in hedgehog walking distance of those two tunnels. We also delivered 1000 leaflets to houses that surround this area.
We now have an opportunity to apply for a £500 grant from the council and we can use it for a project to benefit wildlife/the community. I wanted to try and do something to help hedgehogs, and indeed any other species.
One idea I had was to build some large insect houses to help increase their food source but this is more time than cost.
Does anyone have any ideas on a project that we could use the money for? Or past experiences in certain initiatives and how they went down with the local community?
Any ideas welcome, though we have to satisfy the council criteria, I am sure we could be successful with a suitable idea or two.
Thanks,
Neil.Hi Neil
That all sounds absolutely brilliant. You are so lucky to have such an area.
I haven’t ever been involved in that sort of thing, but, for what it’s worth …..
It sounds as if you have done a fair bit of money spending already with the hog houses and the leaflet drop. Most of the things I can think of otherwise, by way of improving the habitat, could probably, as you say, be done fairly cheaply with the help of volunteers.
I don’t know how much support you have, but it seems to me that education is an important part of this sort of project. So that maybe you could do talks, etc. and maybe if you had some camera traps, you could illustrate to people the progress that was being made. Of course there is the security angle to think about, i.e. would cameras potentially be a target for theft, etc. but something you might like to think about. The more people know about hogs, the more likely they are to help them, so that would, hopefully, ultimately help the hogs in general. At the same time it may encourage more people to become involved with your charity and enjoy the fresh air and emotional wellbeing that a connection with nature can provide.
You may already know that there are lots of downloadable resources https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zooniverse/snapshot-serengeti/talk/subjects/34794060
But I wonder whether this is the sort of thing which PTES Hedgehog Officer might have some more suggestions about. Contact details hedgehog@ptes.orgGood luck I hope you come up with some suitable ideas and manage to get the grant. Let us know how things go.
Hi Nic, Thanks for the reply and the links.
I agree education is probably the most important thing given whatever we do as individuals is not nearly as effective as what a community can do collectively if effectively engaged. It’s alright having an area of community space nice for wildlife but gardens are a far greater area and have more potential.
The only downside about education is measuring it in order to show success criteria has been met with the council. Although you could argue Facebook engagements, an increase in volunteers etc. are measurable.
Anyway, I rang the Hedgehog Street number and spoke with a nice lady who gave me some ideas. An evening talk with a hedgehog carer and perhaps other guests is a good engagement idea as well as some interpretative boards around the place, which is a tangible thing to spend the money on. She also suggest we could advertise if anyone wanted a hedgehog hole making and we could do it for them.
One idea I am thinking about as I type is a small mock garden in the public space, but showing a hedgehog house, a log pile, a fence with a hole in it and other wildlife friendly examples, to show people how it could look. The downside is whether it gets trashed by kids or gets voted down at a meeting but hey ho.
I will let you know how I get on!
Thanks,
Neil.Hi Neil
Glad to hear you spoke to someone and got some more ideas. If it was the number at the bottom of this page, it would have been someone from the BHPS – they’re always very helpful, too.
The garden thing sounds a good idea. I always think too much stress is put on leaving the garden untidy for it to be good for wildlife. That isn’t necessarily the case and might put some people off. As long as it has the wildlife friendly features, it can still be tidy. But there are lots of things you can do, ie. put log piles in gabion baskets – the insects don’t mind. Have wild flower areas with neat areas or paths around them, etc. I have found that the hogs here seem to like the lawn a bit long for foraging on, but not too long. So still looking like lawn, but as long as there are the wildlife friendly areas around it (i.e. possibly some longer patches), it’s fine to have some lawn.
There was a garden done for hogs:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/about-our-hedgehog-street-campaign/harlowcarr/Good luck.
Just found another link from a garden at Hampton Court Flower Show:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/hamptoncourt/
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