The Hedgerow Dilemma
Everyone likes to see good hedges. They are visually satisfying and the countryside would be the poorer without them. Here in East Anglia many have been removed over recent years and the prairie like scene is depressing, no regard having been made for amenity or wildlife habitat. The plough is king and every square metre has to pull its weight. This is agri-business, this is where farm financial targets have to be met or heads will roll.
Lets face it, hedges are a costly nuisance to the arable farmer. They are expensive to maintain and the bigger and better they are allowed to grow, the more expensive they become. They harbour vermin; they create shade where no shade is wanted and require headlands, causing loss of time for large scale machinery and soil compaction.
Hedge planting grants are available, but if what DEFRA tells me is correct, there is no support for the years of maintenance which follow. Around here in Norfolk, an agricultural contractor charges £12.50 - £15.00 per hour + VAT so this does not come cheap. Hedgerow trees add to the expense. If those in authority are serious in urging farmers to invest in environment improvements at the expense of production, I can think of no better way than by devising an attractive scheme for hedge reinstatement with maintenance contributions.
If you see good hedges in an arable country, you can be pretty sure the owner is keen on shooting. They give game birds nesting sites and more often than not, are necessary to show sporting birds, especially partridges, over a line of guns. Several years ago, I was called in as an "expert witness" in a dispute over the removal of hedges and beetle banks. The owner had sold his agricultural property to an institution reserving the sporting rights on a long-term basis. The purchaser resold to the farm tenant who removed a large number of hedges and the case revolved around the value of the "lost" hedges to the sporting rights. The case, settled out of court, demonstrates the importance of hedges to the value of shooting.
The timing of hedge cutting comes in for much criticism. Roadside hedges probably need to be cut annually whether the farmer likes it or not. The preponderance of autumn drilling necessitates early cutting, although many can be cut on the inside only in the autumn, leaving the top and outside to be cut in the early spring. Thus some berries and wild fruits are left through the winter. Farmers are urged to cut hedges bi-annually or even less frequently but much of hedge cutting machinery leaves an unsightly slashed appearance when tackling overgrown timber.
A recent letter in our local press suggested that there should be a return to manual hedge cutting but who, I ask myself, would pay for that?
More about Hedgerows
Hedges provide food, shelter and cover for breeding birds. Most species prefer tall hedges. The wider the hedge, the more birds will use it.
Hedges are also important to birds in winter. A dense hedge will provide cover, and if there is a good mix of shrub species in the hedge, some food will be available in winter....
Birds that use hedges primarily for shelter are not greatly influenced by the woody species growing within it. But to those birds feeding within the hedge, such as dunnock, blackbird, blackcap and chaffinch, they are very important. Bramble is consistently the most preferred, elder the least.
The type of woody vegetation beneath the hedge is of significance to wrens, dunnock, robin, blackbird, willow warbler and greenfinch, but their preferences vary.
If hedges are cut in autumn, do not cut again for three years or there will be no berry production. If cut in spring you can cut again after two years. Do not cut between the start of April and the end of August as this is harmful to invertebrates and breeding birds. Ideally, have a rotation so that not all the hedges on one part of the farm are cut at once.....
Do not leave hedges to become so overgrown that your equipment will be unsuitable for the job. Limbs smashed by flails do resprout but such hedges take longer to recover than those cut regularly.....
A good hedge size is over 1.4m tall and 1.2m at the top. If most hedges must be cut annually, mark some stretches which can be left longer - perhaps at field corners, around old ponds or on a side facing a road or track....
The structure of the hedge is important. The complexity of a laid hedge offers more nesting sites for birds and concealed hibernating places for invertebrates than a simple line of bushes managed by cutting or coppicing. A hedge that has become leggy, perhaps with the lower growth browsed away by stock, is unsuitable for scrub nesting species such as dunnocks.
An old hedge or one that has been laid will contain dead wood. This is of value to the large number of insects, such as beetle and moth larvae, which feed on it....
The external form of the hedge is very important to wildlife. If neat trimming takes place every year, flower and fruit production will be very restricted or non-existent......
Hedge Types and their use by Breeding Birds
Adapted from Pollard, Hooper, and Moore, Hedges 1974 Birds Breeding in Hawthorn hedge (by type)
| Av no prs per 1000 yds | No of Breeding species | Side View | Cross Section | |
| Remnant | 6 | 7 |  |  |
| Recently Laid | 6.5 | 8 |  |  |
| Mechanically Cut | 5.7 | 10 |  |  |
| Trimmed but Dense | 9.3 | 7 |  |  |
| Overgrown, undergrowth removed by Heavy Grazing Pressure | 6.4 | 7 |  |  |
| Unclipped, stock proof | 15.1 | 9 |  |  |
| Bushy with outgrowths of Blackthorn | 33.9 | 19 |  |  |