A rural county is to be divided into two with the creation of a 90 mile giant hedge that will be a 'super highway' for wildlife.
The aptly-named Great Big Dorset Hedge will run right across the English county from Forde Abbey on the Dorset/Somerset border in the west to Bokerley Dyke on the edge of Hampshire in the north east.
Environmentalists hope growing the wildlife corridor will improve biodiversity and create a safe haven for insects, mammals and reptiles to safely travel between habitats.
The ambitious plan is the brainwave of Dorset Climate Action Network (CAN), who hope to use volunteers to survey existing hedgerows along the route and identify the gaps that need filling in.
They hope to plant ten different varieties of hedge, including honeysuckle, elm, hawthorn, dogwood and blackthorn, as well as some trees.
The hedge will follow the route of the Jubilee Trail, a footpath that crosses Dorset, and the team also plan to create smaller connecting hedges on four of Dorset's other major walking routes, adding another nine miles to the total.
Dorset CAN say that in the last century tens of thousands of miles of ancient hedgerow have been ripped out to make way for intensive agriculture and better access for large farming machinery.
The continuous hedgerow would enable animals to travel safely between habitats out of sight of predators and allow insects to move without being affected by pesticides often used in crops.
Hedgerows also help battle climate change by capturing huge amounts of carbon and provide flood prevention and soil protection.
Jenny Morisetti, from the campaign, said: "What we are hoping to do is fill in the gaps in the existing hedgerows to create a footpath for the natural world.
"The idea is that insects and other wildlife will be able to move around more freely with cover without fear of predators and be more resilient to pesticides.
"If the insects can't move around it leads to inbreeding. They are the lifeblood of our food chains and pollinate over 87 per cent of our crops. But loss of habitat and use of pesticides means many are now endangered and all have declined in number by more than 50 per cent in the last 30 years.
"This network of healthy hedgerows will increase biodiversity and create wildlife corridors linking habitats.
"It's a big project, ambitious and long-term but we hope it will bring communities together.
"We need volunteers to survey the existing hedgerow so we can identify the gaps that need filling in. Many landowners are already doing a great job managing their hedgerows. Our aim is to survey and then work with landowners to restore where needed and fill in any gaps.
"There's 160km we need to cover and we're asking people to survey 3km stretches.
"It is a big undertaking and it may take a generation for it to stretch the length and breadth of the county."
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