Garden 'makeovers' bad news for hedgehogs

A steep increase in the number of hedgehogs being brought to sanctuaries this summer has been reported by animal volunteers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6299758/Gardening-makeovers-blamed-for-rise-in-orphaned-hedgehogs.html

Dr Toni Bunnell said “The problem now is garden makeovers. They’ve been an unprecedented disaster this year. We are getting lots and lots of mothers and babies disturbed by the bulldozers – the mother can make off but the babies have to be rescued.”

“In the past people have maybe put out a few flowers. Now they are having the whole garden demolished. Everything goes – trees, shrubs, the lot.”

Lorraine Jackson, who runs the Hull Animal Welfare Trust’s Hedgehog Hospital, said: “The makeover programmes on television have a lot to answer for.”


Extreme(ly ugly), wildlife-unfriendly 'makeovers', including for swathes of car-parking, deprive hedgehogs and other species of places to live and feed

RHS and Wildlife Trusts team up on WILDLIFE-FRIENDLY gardening

'Make no mistake, important as nature reserves, national parks and the like unarguably are, the ecological crisis facing us today is above all, a battle for hearts and minds and gardens may well end up being in the front line.' Richard Burkmar 2003

With this in mind, no doubt, the Royal Horticultural Society and the Wildlife Trusts have teamed up to produce an expanded website that encourages wildlife-friendly gardening

http://www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk/index.aspx

There is advice on how to improve gardens for wildlife and a 'jobs for the month' section.

The one disappointing feature is the lack of any reference to the huge loss of garden space - especially front garden space - to hard wildlife-unfriendly surfaces, and no explicit encouragement for its users to reverse any of that. The nearest these partners come to such a revolutionary thought is a suggestion that people might lift a patio paving slab or two to make room for mini gravel gardens.

And whilst there is a section on 'design principles' for wildlife-friendly gardening, I would have liked to have seen a call - especially where a garden is reasonably well planted already - for gardeners (whether long term residents, or newly moved into a property) to take the time to properly investigate what already inhabits their garden and neighbouring ones before making drastic changes. Otherwise they might inadvertently displace something relatively uncommon in the process of trying to encourage something fairly ubiquitous.

London Climate Change Partnership calls for more trees and green roofs as mitigation measures

Four reports are being discussed during a week of events organised by the Government Office for London and the London Climate Change Partnership to help London local government, services providers and businesses to find out how the capital’s climate is going to change, so that we can prepare for extreme weather in the future.

http://www.london.gov.uk/lccp/press/press-29092009.jsp

The ‘Adapting to Climate Change: the role of public procurement’ report concludes that millions of pounds of tax-payers money is being spent on buildings and projects that do not include adaptation measures (such as rainwater harvesting, green roofs and trees to provide summer shading) and consequently they will soon not be fit for purpose. The report shows that current procurement processes can be changed to ensure these are included.

Driving ourselves in the wrong direction: the lack of street trees and the continuing paving over of gardens for car parking will exacerbate the negative effects of climate change. Should this be allowed without a commensurate creation of uncovered ground elsewhere, or the installion of an equivalent surface area of green roofing?

9/9/09: Scientist - 'Disappearing urban gardens could be costing lives'

Dr Ross Cameron a lecturer at the University of Reading UK, and an expert in amenity horticulture, has told the British Science Festival that green urban spaces and gardens play an important role in keeping us sane and fit. They are also useful in cooling inner city temperatures – a problem that will increase with global warming – and also cooling tempers. Studies, he said, had shown that greenery and gardens could reduce crime levels by up to a third, particularly domestic violence levels.

“Creating a concrete jungle does cost lives. It costs lives in terms of depression and encouraging unhealthy lifestyles.”

Full article at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6156068/Garden-grabbing-could-cost-lives.html

Buglife: Minibeast hunt in the garden

Get the kids to take an interest in, and value gardens for their wildlife.

Resources here:

http://www.buglife.org.uk/News/Minibeasthuntinthegarden.htm

But first find a garden .......

1/9/09: London Wildlife Trust - Garden for a Living London campaign

Garden for a Living London

http://www.wildlondon.org.uk/gardening/Home/tabid/384/Default.aspx

The LWT says: 'Let's transform London's three million gardens into a network of mini nature reserves! Pledge to become a wildlife and climate friendly gardener and get your free 'how to' guides.'

I.e., don't do this .......


CONSERVATION STARTS AT HOME. Spot the Sparrow, Bee, Butterfly etc. habitat here. Car parks = sterility = homelessness = death = a further decline in numbers.

More good pro-front garden websites found .....

Have just come across this

http://www.ealingfrontgardens.org.uk/index.htm

To quote from the site:

'This website is about concreting and paving front gardens and the consequences of doing so. It contains detailed research on the extent of front garden surfacing in the London Borough of Ealing, and other information about this increasing problem.

Front gardens disappearing under hard surfacing has reached epidemic proportions in the London Borough of Ealing (as in many other parts of Britain). It has become a serious environmental and social concern.

Their survey found that:

•a quarter of the borough's 74,300 front gardens are completely hard surfaced - no vegetation at all
•a further fifth of front gardens in this borough have nearly all (90-99% of their area) hard surfaced
•well over half of the borough's front gardens have 70% or more of their area under hard surfacing
•the average front garden in the borough has 68% of its area covered in hard surfacing.

The site has a useful set of links to further resources.

Also the Urban Design Alliance:

http://www.udal.org.uk/projects.html

See especially the 'Returning Roads to Residents' link, which charts the processes which have resulted in the creeping and insidious destruction of front gardens.