The University of Lincoln has been including students in their latest plans to go “nature positive”, as students signed up to build a hedgehog habitat on campus this Wednesday, 11th.
In 2019, The University became a Hedgehog Friendly Campus. Since then it has won a gold award, funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, for its efforts. The University also signed up to the Nature Positive Universities network this year to increase biodiversity across the campus.
The event was run by Alex Foxley-Johnson, the Estates Communication Officer for the Sustainability Team at Lincoln, she said:
“For us, wildlife habitat building is something that we want to do to improve the estate itself for all wildlife, not just for hedgehogs. They also benefit other small animals such as mice, weasels and stoats, they might benefit birds, and they provide more insects.”
Building the habitats involved making a stable pile from logs, branches, bark and tree stumps, with room for small animals to get inside. The student volunteers also got the chance to plant wildflower seeds in the surrounding area.
“It’s really important to leave a bit of a mess where you can.” Alex said.
“There are a lot of benefits to getting dirty with nature. Students need to get involved in wildlife-friendly activities: it’s a super positive thing for your wellbeing. Whether it’s through gardening, literally growing your own food, or planting specific plants, you feel like you’re doing something for nature. That’s more important than ever.
What we’re trying to do is to make the University of Lincoln as biodiverse as possible and as engaging as possible for our staff, students and members of the community, but most importantly for our wildlife.”
This is great, a lovely story during these trying times :)