Planting begins for Hampshire Hedge conservation project

The Hampshire Hedge will eave its way through the centre of the county

Work has begun on a rural hedgerow connecting two national parks and designed to benefit wildlife.

The Hampshire Hedge project is intended to link the New Forest and South Downs with a "nature recovery corridor".

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) has launched the three-year initiative with community groups and landowners to improve existing, and replace lost, hedgerows.

CPRE's Ellie Banks said it would help "fragmented" wildlife habitats.

The hedgerow is planned to wind its way for about 14 miles (22km) through the central Hampshire parishes and link woodlands, meadows, local nature reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).

CPRE's Ellie Banks said volunteers would begin working at both ends of the hedge

It will connect Shawford and Compton in the South Downs with Copythorne on the edge of the New Forest.

A total of three miles (5km) of new hedgerow is set to be planted in the project area during the first year with 25,000 whips going into the ground this winter.

Hedge laying involves the the cutting and weaving together of saplings to encourages dense new growth at the base. They intermingle to form a natural barrier which provides food and shelter for birds and animals.

The CPRE said more than half of England's rural hedgerows have been lost since 1945.

Ms Banks said: "The big problem in this country is that wildlife is fragmented on 'islands' and unable to get between those habitats, so hedgerows can provide that connectivity."

Volunteers are set to plant thousands of whips in the Hampshire countryside

The project was launched at an event for volunteers near Winchester.

Hedge-laying expert Nigel Adams said: "They're putting mixed species of plants so in the future, we've got that biodiversity associated with all the different species.

"Hedgerows actually define our countryside - they are the stitching in the patchwork quilt of or countryside - and they are so important for biodiversity, for carbon storage, and indeed our culture, they're so British."

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