Help us Create Wildlife Corridors in Tetbury
Greening Tetbury is creating wildlife corridors by undertaking hedgerow projects throughout the winter months. Nature needs all the help that it can get and developing wildlife corridors is fundamental in this ambition. We're trying to do our bit to help local wildlife and you can get involved too.
What is a Wildlife Corridor?
A wildlife corridor is an area that connects wildlife habitats that have become
separated, usually due to human activities, such as urbanisation or agricultural
expansion.
When animals or plants are separated from their habitats, it leads to a loss of genetic biodiversity, making species less robust. This is especially relevant in light of climate change where species will need to adapt to changes in temperature, weather conditions, habitat, food and water availability. Notwithstanding climate change, habitat fragmentation is a huge issue for those creatures that need cover when foraging, inhibiting their movement across their territory.
A shocking statistic, published by the Natural History Museum’s Biodiversity
Intactness Index is that the UK, in terms of biodiversity depletion, comes 189th out of 240 countries surveyed.
One of the ways to tackle this biodiversity depletion is by connecting isolated
habitats. A common way to do this is to plant a hedgerow between two woodland areas, allowing animals to travel under cover between them. Plants also benefit from wildlife corridors by enabling animals to transfer their seeds, and insects their pollen. And, of course, a hedgerow of itself provides shelter for plants, reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects and small mammals.
Get involved with our upcoming planting days
As part of our aim to build more wildlife corridors in Tetbury, we are involved in a number of hedge and tree planting projects. Last winter, Greening Tetbury volunteers planted 330 saplings at Sir William Romney School and 400 hedge plants at Ringfield Farm, Nailsworth.
We need volunteers to give a helping hand in November for our next planting project:
You can volunteer for just a couple of hours or the whole day if you'd like. Light refreshments will be provided. Please get in touch if you can help.
How else could Tetbury connect wildlife with habitats
There are other methods of linking up nature that have been adopted in the UK and around the world. Here are a few successful examples that we could consider for Tetbury:
Whilst driving through Wales, you may have seen a narrow structure slung high
above the road, connecting areas of woodland on either side. This is another
example of a wildlife corridor, mainly for the benefit of the dormouse, but also
used by other animals such as the pine martin and squirrel.
In Alberta, Canada, you will observe much larger structures on the highways:
grizzly bears and elk use the overpasses that have been artificially created,
whilst black bears and mountain lions prefer the underpasses.
Examples of very large wildlife corridors can be found on Gloucestershire
Wildlife Trust’s website. The organisation is creating Nature Recovery Zones, whereby nature reserves are being connected to each other, linking though land owned by farmers and other landowners or by the Trust acquiring new land when it becomes
available. One such example is in the Golden Valley, where a seamless linkage
is being created between Stroud and Sapperton.
A further example is in Sussex where a 100 mile nature corridor is being
created, focused on three rivers flowing through the county. Wetlands,
hedgerows, meadows and woodland are connecting habitats across farmland
and even in built-up areas (www.wealdtowaves.co.uk).
There are plenty of ways we can help to connect nature locally, starting with hedgerows. We'd love your help with our planting projects, so please get in touch if you can spare an hour or two.
We're also keen to hear your ideas for the future nature projects. Could Tetbury perhaps one day have its own wildlife highway or underpass?
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