Hedgehog Community Workshop

By Kate Cracknell

The inaugural Hedgehog Community Workshop, hosted by the volunteer-led Haslemere Biodiversity group, had one objective - to save our hedgehogs.

In 2020, hedgehogs were classified as “vulnerable to extinction” in Great Britain. It’s hard to imagine a world without hedgehogs, which is why we need to act now.

According to People’s Trust for Endangered Species, hedgehogs in Britain have undergone a long-term decline. Since the millennium, hedgehogs have decreased by 30% in urban areas and by 50% in rural areas. Over the past few decades, large areas of natural habitat and wildlife-rich hedgerows have diminished at an alarming rate.

Hedgehogs are nocturnal and notoriously hard to monitor. They hide in thick vegetation, making it challenging to get an accurate population count. They are voracious foragers and like to get their step count in, walking an average of 1 to 2 miles (2 to 3 kilometres) every night. They roam these large distances to find food, mates, and safe nesting sites.

The focus of the meeting, held on a hot August 2026 evening at Haslemere Town Hall, was to explore what a community-led hedgehog project might look like. This involved sharing ideas on what’s working well and not so well. The brief for the attendees was to bring “curiosity and enthusiasm.” This was achieved, with the bonus of lemon cake, coffee and tea. The volunteers were brimming with ideas of how to help our local hedgehogs.

Challenges hedgehogs face include;

● Restricted movement due to enclosed gardens

● Garden netting, hedgehogs can get tangled up

● Toxicity from pesticides like slug pellets

● Natural predators such as badgers, foxes and owls

● Automatic lawnmowers which are often used at night

● Climate change - very hot summers and water shortages

● Ponds - hedgehogs can fall in, but can’t get out

● Decrease in natural food and associated habitat

● Increased vehicle collisions

● Fewer hedgerows and fewer invertebrates

So how can we best support these beautiful, spikey mammals in Haslemere? We need Hedgehog ambassadors to head up local groups. Together, we can start collating hedgehog intel. Using a voting system, the 26 members at the meeting agreed that volunteers need to monitor hedgehog activity. Haslemere hedgehog sightings need to be logged, mapping out where they have been spotted dead or alive. It was also noted that there may have to be a system of identifying or tracking the hedgehogs; otherwise, one street could be logging the same hedgehog waddling from garden to garden.

It may be as simple as a few roads creating hedgehog highways connecting their gardens and photographing the hogs they have seen. It’s a win-win, linking communities and neighbours who can create these networks to benefit the hedgehog. This vital information will pinpoint areas where hedgehogs are thriving, or not.

Haslemere Biodiversity project ideas included: creating conditions for invertebrates to thrive, logging hedgehog sightings, promoting hedgehog houses, and setting up a local Haslemere WhatsApp/Facebook group to unite members.

Hedgehog Houses: These are commercially available, but vary considerably in design and quality. Haslemere Biodiversity recommends houses should be the gold standard spec recommended by the BHPS/ PTES. The houses are made of untreated wood and accessible for hedgehogs but inaccessible to predators such as cats and foxes. A prototype, crafted by a Lynchmere member, was produced for around £45. There were suggestions of distributing approved hedgehog house templates for those with the skill set to make them. Alternatively, encouraging pupils to design hedgehog houses as a DT project.

Hedgehog Highways: With an increasing desire for manicured and fortified gardens, hedgehogs are unable to travel freely. To make a hedgehog highway, a 13cm opening at ground level is made in a garden fence or wall. This allows hedgehogs to roam freely between gardens for food and mates while keeping most pets safely contained. Some hedgehog highways are already in existence in Haslemere, but more are needed.

Hedgehog Help Sheet: Useful information may include feeding times, when to feed, what to feed, what to do and who to call if a hedgehog is found injured or unwell. Who do you call?

Liz Burton, Communications Lead at Haslemere Biodiversity, felt uplifted by the army of volunteers, “By connecting with nature and sharing information, we can create a coherent vision for conservation. We’ll continue to support the new hedgehog group with guidance, expertise and partners. It is simply the best feeling, seeing what we can achieve when we work together as a community.”

There were discussions of reaching out to a variety of local communities from children’s nurseries to secondary schools, anywhere with hedgehog-friendly habitats.

Dr Philippa Guest, chair of Haslemere Biodiversity said, “Our aim was to bring the community together around a shared understanding of the challenges facing local hedgehogs and to identify practical ways forward. We were delighted that so many people came along and contributed their ideas, expertise and experience so freely. We left feeling tremendously encouraged by the energy, enthusiasm and commitment in the room, with a clear sense of purpose and a strong foundation for action.”

As the meeting was drawing to a close, a lady made a beeline for the door, making her apologies. However, she had the perfect excuse. She was rushing home to tend to her garden hedgehogs who “needed feeding at 9.05,” whilst joking these prickly customers were playing havoc with her social life. This just demonstrates the sacrifices local people are willing to make to protect hedgehogs for future generations.

Want to get involved? Here are some useful links.

Haslemere Biodiversity 

BHPS British Hedgehog Preservation Society

People’s Trust for Endangered Species

Hedgehog Street