In late February, Heath Hands hosted local organisations involved in wildlife connectivity around the Heath for a meeting and site visit. It was an inspiring day, sharing information on each group’s projects and hearing about all our partners’ efforts. Read on to find out more.

Kenwood meeting — Welcoming members of the local groups and sharing project updates

Conservation work on Hampstead Heath

As part of our meeting and site visit, we focused on what we have been doing since 2016 on Hampstead Heath and the Kenwood Estate in collaboration with colleagues at the City of London Corporation and English Heritage.

We looked at examples of dead hedging, hedge planting, scrub maintenance, meadow creation and work on wildlife corridors such as the Savernake Road bridge entrance to the Heath. In addition, we discussed the use of hedgehog boxes and first aid stations to help support the Heath’s hedgehog population. You can find out more about our connectivity work here.

Discussing conservation work with the Garden Team and volunteers on Kenwood Estate

Updates from around the Heath - camera surveys

We were joined by the London Hogwatch team, who presented initial findings from the 2024 Hampstead Heath hedgehog survey - these indicate that the Heath remains a hedgehog stronghold for London. These large-scale camera surveys are invaluable in identifying areas where hedgehog populations are changing and where interventions may be needed.

In 2025, we look forward to working with the Hogwatch team again on new hedgehog surveys at Highgate Wood and surrounding areas, alongside longer-term analysis of historical hog data.

Training session ahead of camera surveys for the 2024 project

Creating hedgehog highways and green corridors

Our friends at Growing Green updated the group on work on the Holly Lodge Estate. Previous data collection and hedgehog surveys had identified the Estate as key to hedgehog connectivity between Hampstead Heath and green spaces such as the Highgate Cemetery and Waterlow Park.

Following joint hog workshops and leafleting with Heath Hands, Growing Green have made great progress in encouraging neighbours to create holes in their gardens to connect up gardens and green spaces across the Estate. They have also put forward some proposals to Camden Council regarding traffic calming and hedgehog crossings along Swains Lane.

The Highgate Neighbourhood Forum have also been working on connectivity and they shared their map for a vision of of green corridors and stepping stones around the Highgate area - we look forward to working with them on workshops and camera surveys in 2025 alongside the planned Highgate Wood camera trapping survey.

Highgate Neighbourhood Forum’s proposed corridors

Working with local stakeholders

The Friends of Cherry Tree Wood presented some of the biodiversity improvements they’ve been making on their green space with support from Barnet Council. We also discussed challenges with fencing along external sites, for instance around the railway line between Cherry Tree and Highgate Wood creating barriers to connectivity. We look forward to working with the Friends to investigate possible improvements.

The Heath and Hampstead Society presented their Camden Nature Corridor project to connect several green spaces and Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs) between Hampstead Heath and Talacre Gardens, working in particular with Camden Council to try to ensure that planned new housing developments take connectivity into account - we look forward to working with the team over the coming year to engage the local community about hedgehogs and connectivity.

Communities coming together for wildlife

Our friends at Britain’s Biggest Living Garden in Hampstead Garden Suburb updated everyone on their project to bring their local community together to boost biodiversity in an already very connected area as the Suburb has lots of garden spaces and hedging by design. It was great to have a representative from the Friends of Big Wood in the Suburb too and we look forward to working with both organisations to increase connectivity to the North of the Heath.

Delivering a hedgehog workshop at Britain’s Biggest Living Gardens’ children’s gardening workshop in 2024

Keeping updated

If you’d like to keep up-to-date on our connectivity work, do keep an eye on our dedicated webpages or subscribe to our newsletter. You can also support our work by adopting a hedgehog box.

Update on wildlife connectivity projects