Upper Ouse Meeting Report
Our December Meeting was complimented by an extensive and fascinating talk on hedgerows and hedgerow management by Megan Gimber from the People’s Trust for Endangered Species. Below is a modest summary of what was discussed, the slides will also be sent out to the group.
What is a hedge?
Hedges are man-made structures that represent key features of the UK’s historic landscape. They are also dynamic, living and evolving, boundaries that must be managed to ensure they remain healthy and deliver for people and nature. Hedges are a unique intersection of 3 habitats: Woodland, Flowering Scrub and pasture. Together these habitats offer so much more than they would as an individual entity. Hedges, their presence or lack thereof, and the management has always gone hand in hand with government policy and societal changes.
What can a Healthy Hedge Provide for nature?
A physical home: important UK species including nightingale, turtle dove and hedgehogs use our hedgerows to nest and in the case of hedgehogs hibernate during winter.
Food and shelter: while some species may not live within the hedgerow structure, the hedgerow forms a vital food source for predators and for prey, a means of shelter when threatened by their surroundings.
Wildlife corridors: a number of species such as dormouse are adapted to travelling through the hedgerow network or use hedgerow networks for navigation, so can be left stranded by large gaps in the hedgerow network.
Help to arboreal and avian specialists: many species such as butterflies and pollinators use the shaded side of hedge to shelter them from weather as they fly from a to b.
What can a Healthy Hedge Provide for Farming?
Shelter for livestock: from all kinds of meteorological elements
Shade: as summers get warmer and we come to terms with the impact of climate change, hedges will provide vital shaded habitat for livestock on hot days especially as cattle start to show signs of stress in temperatures above 24 degrees Celsius.
Wind dissipation: a hedge structure can dissipate wind energy up to 12 times the height of a hedge. For example a hedge of 2 meters will dissipate winder up to a height of 24 meters.
Pest Management: hedges provide habitat for natural predators of agricultural pests. They also provide refuge for predators during agricultural operations
Pollinators: Hedges are important for providing habitat for pollinators which travel between the farmed landscape
Natural Flood management: the roots of hedges create an important network of natural drainage that allows water to percolate through the soil at a much quicker rate during times of high rainfall. In addition, hedges themselves intercept water through their roots.
Soil erosion: hedge roots also provide increased soil stability avoiding runoff
Pollution mitigation: Hedgerows help to soak up carbon dioxide, especially hedges that border roads
What do Hedgerows need to be Healthy?
A variety of Species: this creates resilience especially in light of the uncertainties of climate change
Height: aiming for bigger hedges all round
Structural complexity: Hedgerows when left unmanaged will often grow into single stemmed trees but to achieve a healthy structure management through laying or coppicing is carried out to encourage growth of multi-stemmed structures
Connectivity: gaps in hedges are warning signs they are under stress
Margins: this buffers hedges from farming activity and reduces pressure on the hedge system
Density to the base: this is extremely important for wildlife E.g. most birds next in the base of the hedge or at knee height
Hedgerow trees: 50% of birds rely on hedgerow trees
Management: coppicing, laying or incremental trimming
How do we manage Hedgerows?
While DEFRA give quite detailed guidance on how to plant new hedgerows, there is limited guidance on the best means of managing hedgerows. There are three principal management cycles that can be adopted to manage hedgerows:
Option 1
Plant usually as per DEFRA guidance (planted in a staggered double row 40 centimetres (cm) apart with a minimum of 6 plants per metre)
Leave for up to 10 years or as long as it takes for the hedge to look like it needs to enter a rejuvenation cycle
Lay (The first lay is called a maiden lay), This is a practise usually done to a hedge once a generation.
Trim incrementally, Trim the hedge to incremental heights to allow new branches to continue growing and bearing fruit.
Option 2
Plant usually as per DEFRA guidance (planted in a staggered double row 40 centimetres (cm) apart with a minimum of 6 plants per metre)
Leave for up to 10 years or as long as it takes for the hedge to look like it needs to enter a rejuvenation cycle
Coppice, Cut the hedge back to its base to allow new multi-stemmed growth
Trim Incrementally, trim the hedge to incremental heights to allow new branches to continue growing and bearing fruit.
Option 3
Trim the hedge to incremental heights to allow new branches to continue growing and bearing fruit (only 1 recommended under SFI)
The two big No no’s in hedgerow management are trimming to the same height and trimming on an annual cycle, as this does not allow the hedge to restore and grow beyond the previous trim and it also prohibits the hedge from bearing new fruit.
There are a number of capital and revenue items that can be claimed through environmental land management schemes for managing hedges. Below is a helpful table of all the options available and their payment rates. Unfortunately a number of these have been affected by the pause in capital grants and m updates on the future of these grants should be available in the new year.