Hedgerow Heroes
November 2025
Written by Clare Limb & Jennie Reid
In partnership with the Derbyshire Branch of CPRE (The Countryside Charity) we have been busy planting hedgerows in our community. Locations include land on private property as well as at Crich Junior School.
Prior to planting there was a call-out for people to come and be ‘Hedgerow Heroes’ and we got a fantastic response.
Thank you to all who came along, donned your gardening capes and heroically planted 800 baby bushes such as Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Field Maple, Hazel and Holly, with the aim of increasing local biodiversity as birds and animals make their homes in them.
UK native species were selected to provide the best food sources for our wildlife (especially the invertebrates). The planting is carried out at this time of year as the hedges are dormant, so it allows time for the roots to get established before the start of the growing season.
But those doing the planting were not the only heroes, the hedges themselves are heroic when it comes to climate resilience - they capture carbon dioxide and store it as carbon in woody growth, roots leaf litter and soil organic matter. Additionally, by slowing down surface water run-off in storm conditions, flooding and soil erosion is reduced.
