Plea To Protect Wildlife During Branchage

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 at 17:16

The chairman of Action For Wildlife Jersey is calling on landowners to protect hedgehogs and other animals during this year's Branchage.

Inspections will be held from 24 June to make sure hedges, branches and other vegetation is cut back.

Hedgehogs and other wildlife have been injured or killed during the annual cut.

Chris Perkins says it's important for people to understand how important it is to balance the Branchage law with enhancing biodiversity.

"The branchage guidelines were updated in 2019 and, since then, with the enthusiastic support of our farmers in particular, the campaign has been so successful as to be rated ‘Outstanding’ in 2021 by the Royal Horticultural Society: one of only 21 projects to receive this accolade throughout the British Isles.

We aim to build on this success during 2022."

The Jersey Hedgehog Preservation Group has regularly posted incidents of hedgehogs being seriously injured by strimmers.

The 2022 Action for Wildlife campaign aims to reduce the number of injuries and give guidance on how to avoid them.

"The charity, Plantlife estimates that if all of the road verges in the United Kingdom were managed for nature, there would be a spectacular 418,88bn more flowers. In Jersey that would equate to nearly 650million more flowers.

Careful management of our banques and hedges could potentially provide us with a “Battle of Flowers” that will last for months every year." - Chris Perkins, chairman.

Branchage guidelines can be read here.