Hedgerows of Horton and Hawkesbury

Sally Pattison, Biodiversity responsible at South Gloucestershire Council writes;

Some of you may have noticed some new hedgerow planting along Highfield lane between Horton and Hawkesbury. This was carried out by the Cotswold wardens over two days on either side of Christmas. During January and February, this will be added to with more new hedges plus three small woodland blocks. The planting is across two different adjacent pieces of private land but some of it will be visible from lanes and footpaths.

The hedgerow plants are predominantly hawthorn and hazel with some additions of dogrose, dogwood and various other native shrubs. There will also be a range of trees including oak, cherry and field maple. They are all guarded from nibbling deer and rabbits with guards. Some guards are old-style plastic, some are (so say) recyclable and some are cardboard (a bit of a trial).

The new hedges and new woodlands have been grant funded by the Forest of Avon. The grant doesn't include gapping up existing hedges, so the Cotswold Wardens came to the rescue with the extra plants kindly funded by Hawkesbury parish council. The whole thing has been project managed by Sally Pattison, ecologist from South Gloucestershire council and the plants have all been bought from Landcare, Old Sodbury. The location was targeted by Sally who also planted 2km of new hedges here 13 years ago with help from many local groups including Hawkesbury Upton primary school pupils. This spot was an obvious gap between the amazing woods around Petty France and Badminton and Lower woods nearer Wickwar. Adding further planting will only help to fill this gap and allow wildlife to move through the landscape; from butterflies and birds to dormice and hedgehogs.

Experts now know that nature reserves don't protect wildlife. They are too small and too dispersed. Larger areas which act as landscape corridors have instead been identified for wildlife. Unfortunately, these wildlife corridors have gaps and filling them is one of the most urgent actions in the region's climate and nature action plan. There are approx. 60 habitat gaps were identified across South Glos. 30 are wetlands and the rest are a mix of woods and wildflower meadows. East of Lower Woods is one of these critical woodland habitat gaps and whilst finding land for new woods is tricky hedges are easier to accommodate.