Award winning support for hedgehogs at York St John University

We’ve earned Silver accreditation in the Hedgehog Friendly Campus Scheme. 

Hedgehog Friendly Campus is a UK-wide award scheme funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Teams of staff and students work to apply hedgehog-friendly actions on and around their university, college or school.   

York St John University is delighted to have been awarded the Silver accreditation (2021/2022) in recognition of the work being done on our campuses to help the beloved prickly mammals.   

Various initiatives have been organised through the year including:     

• Hedgehog surveys    
• Hog-friendly litter picking organised in conjunction with the Students’ Union   
• Hedgehog houses (made by the in-house joinery department) at Lord Mayor’s Walk (LMW) and Haxby Road Sports Park   
• Log and leaf piles left for hedgehogs, invertebrates, and mammals    
• Sowing hog-friendly wildflower mix at the main campus, City, and Limes Court residences - including buttercups, oxeye daisies, cow parsley, red campion and vetch  
• Native tree planting at Haxby Road Sports Park    
• Awareness raising, including a ‘How to Help Hedgehogs’ webinar hosted by Hedgehog Friendly Campus during our Green Week.  

Aside from the accreditation, it seems the local hedgehogs are impressed with the hard work too. A recent survey found hedgehog prints at both our LMW and Haxby Road campuses. While in September, a wildlife camera managed to capture footage of a night-time visitor to one of the survey tunnels – see article image.     

Yumino Simpson, Environmental Management Officer at York St John University said: “We are very pleased that we have achieved our Silver accreditation. It’s the culmination of a great team effort, with the Grounds team, Environment team and the Students' Union all working together on the project.     

“The recent hedgehog survey was done with staff volunteers, and we uncovered plenty of evidence of hedgehogs, so it was brilliant that they got to see how the work is paying off.      

“We’re going for Gold accreditation next, which will see us reaching out to the wider public to raise awareness - we are looking forward to working with the community with our staff and students.”     

If you’d like to get involved with helping hedgehog projects at York St John, email the Sustainability team at sustainability@yorksj.ac.uk.