Chiswick Calendar volunteer stories: Wild Chiswick – Joanne Gilbert

Joanne Gilbert in action pointing out insects

This is the latest in our series of volunteer stories, in which Trisha Cochrane meets the people giving their time to local organisations and green spaces across Chiswick, finding out what brought them there and what keeps them coming back

Guest series by Trisha Cochrane

As pesticide and human use has increased in the countryside, so has the loss of habitat for wildlife.  This means that urban green spaces are now critical for many wildlife species.  Jo Gilbert – often known as ‘the hedgehog lady’ – started Wild Chiswick in 2021, a not-for-profit community group, to try and counter this trend.

I’m always in awe of people who have so much energy and passion for their projects, and Jo is such a standout.

After we met at Chiswick House, she had us scanning the ground for insect life and it was amazing how much we saw.

Joanne Gilbert, founder of Wild Chiswick

How did you get into all this Jo? 

I’ve always loved animals and have been involved with wildlife for about 15 years now.  I’m really interested in animal behaviour – what they are doing and why – and I started by learning to be a dog trainer.

I then did an HND in animal behaviour and followed this with a master’s degree.  I met so many interesting people along the way, like ecologists and other experts.  I was living in Devon and started volunteering at a wildlife rescue place.

It was a real eye opener to see how many animals end up in trouble – either orphaned or injured, and not always by accident, sadly.  I remember walking into a room and seeing 100 hedgehogs and wondering why they were there – and realising the difficulties they encountered.

I got the opportunity to observe fox cubs and badgers, and sometimes took home orphaned hedgehogs and squirrels to rear.  There was one particularly surreal moment where I remember thinking who’d have thought I’d be holding down the rear end of a badger while someone gave it an injection!

But then you had to leave the countryside and moved to Chiswick… 

Yes and I wondered how I could carry on the wildlife work that I loved.  It’s so easy to lose touch with nature but if we just stop and look, we can see so many amazing species: a caterpillar or a blackbird or a fox.

We can take the time to really observe what they look like and what they are doing.  Did you know there are over 200 species of bee in the UK?  It’s incredible.  I thought that I could ask the specialists I’d met over the years to come and give talks in Chiswick, maybe four times a year, to raise awareness and pull the community together over a cup of tea and a biscuit.

That was all it was meant to be.

And then somehow you became the hedgehog lady?

The very first community talk was with hedgehog experts, and they persuaded me to do hedgehog surveys across Chiswick.  For example, in Chiswick House & Gardens, allotments, people’s gardens.

Once I did that and identified where the hedgehogs were, I wanted to provide hedgehog ‘highways’, to enable them to move about safely.

And for that you need help from volunteers – and it was at that point that Wild Chiswick was officially born, so that we could raise money to carry on our work.

What has kept you going?  

I love the hedgehog highways and connecting green spaces; we’ve now created over 70 holes between people’s gardens, including two whole streets with a highway from end to end, and we’d love to do more.

t’s so important for wildlife to be able to move about freely and safely.

And we’ve just found hedgehogs in Duke’s Meadows which we’ve never seen before.  I also love seeing how children react when you give them an opportunity to go into a green space; seeing their faces when they spot a bug or learn about a creature.

A teacher told me that after hearing how bad litter is for hedgehogs, the children had been out clearing litter in their playground.  It’s so delightful to see and hear about those things.  I’m still learning and I’ve found more confidence through speaking to people – I can talk the leg off a hedgehog now!

I didn’t know many people when I moved to Chiswick but through this, I’ve built new relationships and met such interesting people.

I’ve got to know my neighbours as well as the wider community.

So what is Wild Chiswick about?  

Our main aims are to create awareness of wildlife across Chiswick and to encourage people to look after habitats and create new ones. We do events, school talks and mammal surveys.  We have also revitalised the wildlife allotment on Staveley Road, which had become overgrown.

Chiswick Horticultural Society asked Abundance London if they could revive it, and they passed the challenge on to us. It was a great opportunity.

We couldn’t do that without volunteers and it tripled in size last year so we need plenty of helping hands.

We’ve cleared the pond and the newts arrived as we were doing that; we’ve put in a wildflower area as well as hedging and log piles.

Recently we’ve added a butterfly bank and an experimental bee bank to see if we can attract solitary and mining bees.  Belmont School have created a herb bed, and Chiswick School helped with the weeding and built a bug hotel.

There’s so much more to do!  I love the culture of re-use on an allotment, and we’ve grown scented vines on an old greenhouse frame to attract moths, which in turn will encourage bats.

How can people get involved? 

There’s lots of things to do, for people of all ages and physical abilities.  You can make a regular commitment or ad hoc, as suits.

You can help with events and projects, social media, leafleting, small mammal surveys, drilling holes in fences for the hedgehog highways, or helping with the wildlife allotment.  See wildchiswick.com/volunteering/ for more information and to register your interest.

We’d really love your help!  Even if you take your children into the garden or a park, you can take a photo of any wildlife you see and enter it on our website nature survey form.

This information then goes into Greenspace information for Greater London’s database, which is used by local councils and ecologists to see where species are, ensure their habitats are protected, and work out ways to connect them.

A very important citizen science project that is so easy for people to do and can make a huge difference to wildlife!

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