Hedgerow Heroes – Filling the Gap

This wonderful Project was funded by CPRE, Farming in the Protected Landscapes and the Cirencester Soroptomists, coming to £36,567, it was delivered by FWAG South West and our wonderful team of volunteers. The aim was to plant over 4km of native hedge and 400 trees on over 23 farms in Gloucestershire, covering the five CPRE districts and within the Cotswolds AONB.

From the start this project looked promising and attracted the attention of funders, farmers and volunteers across the county. Each funder has been instrumental in the delivery of the project and brought about huge benefits to biodiversity, people and place. We arranged 5 led experience days round the county to engage with people and show them how to plant trees and hedges. Our volunteer days really struck a note with people who wanted to get outdoors post the Pandemic crisis and make the most of the last of the winter days; they came from near and far to help. We had wonderful attendance on all of the days, led by our FWAG volunteer coordinator Archie Lelieveld; who supplied on the day health and safety training as well as direction on planting. Karen Bomford and Richard Lloyd from CPRE came out to help on our first hedge planting day at Kilkenny in Bibury, where we had over 13 volunteers helping. In total we had over 75 volunteers giving their time to help put all the plants in the ground and we covered 6 volunteer days; some were revisited to put the final hedge count in. The volunteer in kind contribution to the project was £18,750 which brought our total spend to £55,317, what a contribution from the public! We put the final spade in the ground on March 8^th 2022 and can conclude that we planted 4.4km of hedge and 500 trees in total. Thank you to all who made this such a worthwhile project.

Read the article via the CPRE Newsletter by clicking here...

- Joanne Leigh, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group SouthWest.

If you have any questions about this project, please email [email protected]