Hedgerows are an invaluable natural resource, playing many roles from providing essential refuges & safe travels routes for wildlife & insects, acting as vital windbreaks which help to reduce soil loss & erosion, and create importanting hubs for our precious pollinators. Yet since the Second World War hedgerows have been removed at a much faster rate than they have been planted. A significant number of hedgerows have been lost, or so badly managed that their value to wildlife is much reduced.

The Real Hedge Fund will support a programme of hedgerow planting across Cumbria, working with communities, landowners and farmers. As well as practical conservation we will deliver educational and awareness raising activity, We hope to be able to replant around 4km of hedgerows across Cumbria, restoring this natural habitat. We are experienced in working across this landscape, and in engaging the many stakeholders needed to make environmental and landscape work effective.