CPRE Shropshire’s Hedgerow Heroes project
CPRE Shropshire has been running its first ever hedgerow project this season (Autumn/Winter 2021-22) in the South of the county and we’ve produced a sub 3 minute slideshow summarising what we have been up to for the past 9 months.
Normally known for its technical desk-based work on planning and development in the countryside, CPRE (now called the Countryside Charity) has branched out into more practical, boots-on-the-grounds work with this Hedgerow Heroes project and organised hedgerow creation, hedgelaying training sessions, hedge talks and walks as well as a new ‘hedge kitbag’ for Forest Schools.
We’ve run 7 hedgelaying training workshops, 7 hedge walks, 9 hedge talks (online), prepared and delivered specially-made hedge ‘kitbags’ to 20 Forest Schools and by the end of the season will have planted nearly 2km of new hedgerow in South Shropshire using around 15k tree whips, all supplied by local tree nursery at Bucknell in the Redlake Valley.
The project will have engaged with more than 1200 people in all through all the activities it has run and we have had the pleasure of working and collaborating with a number of local environmental organisations such as Trees for Shropshire, the National Trust, Land, Life & Livelihoods, Severn Tree Trust and the Shropshire Hills AONB.
Our final hedgelaying workshop was requested by the local Young Farmers Club which we had youngsters from the age of 14 upwards tackling a nice and forgiving Hazel hedge in Llanfair Waterdine at the end of January.
We hope to be able to continue our project into 2022/23 and have now applied for a continuation of funding for this. We will hear if we have been successful in April.
Sign up to the Hedgerow Project to get updates and get news and information here.
Find out more about the Project here.
Sarah Jameson
Branch Manager, CPRE Shropshire
