#572: Natural History Playlist #5: Hedgerow

A lovely song by the progressive rock band: Big Big Train.

The closing track on their 2012 album 'English Electric Part One' which really grew their audience.

Tell me do you know the song of the hedgerow?

I love the repeated refrain at the end of the song, and the brass bands tone...

Song thrush, yellowhammer
Lacewings, ladybirds
Fox earths, rabbit warrens
Badger's sets, partridge nests

Rose hips, haw berries
Hedgerow, dry stone
Dog rose, honeysuckle
Blackbirds, red wing

#325: No hedges, no hogs...

This Cambridge News piece reminds us that if there are no hedges, there will be no hedgehogs... and hedges are being lost from farms, despite attempts to restore them now, with new targets for planting new hedges. 

Some are being planted in the fields around the village where I live in Norfolk. We need more hedges for sure.

#303: National Hedgerow Week 2024

I'm looking forward to reading the new book: 'Hedgelands'.

We are now in National Hedgerow Week as it stands.

Great to see an article on why hedgerows are important in the Big Issue! Don't forget National Hedgerow Week starts next week, get ready! #NHW #NationalHedgerowWeek24 🌳 💚 pic.twitter.com/MCleiuQWY4

— The Tree Council (@TheTreeCouncil) April 29, 2024

The article in The Big Issue is important to catch up with. Why not buy your own copy of the latest issue. 

I try to pick one up from vendors in Ely or Norwich.

There's a great opening to that piece which sums up why hedgerows are important.

The traditional British hedge is the greatest edge habitat on earth. It is a green food bank, a windbreak, a stock fence, a flood defence system, an immense storage unit for excess carbon dioxide and an incomparable haven for wildlife. According to the RSPB, “hedges may support up to 80% of our woodland birds, 50% of our mammals and 30% of our butterflies”.

A hedge provides singing posts for birds, a crucial navigational aid for bats, and a cross-country route for any number of small mammals, safely hidden from predators. Hedgerow shrubs and trees, bathed in sunshine, will also produce far more fruit that in a woodland. You won’t find many juicy blackberries in the heart of a dark oak forest, no matter how many brambles might be trying to grow there. The most generous kind of hedge should include shrubs, trees and bushes, coppiced and/or cut and laid, forming a row.

It's #NationalHedgerowWeek!
Tell us @Hedgelink_UK how you'll be celebrating hedgerows this week! Share your favourite hedge photos with #myfavehedge and spread the word just how great hedges are! pic.twitter.com/m9IwZ1dxPk

— Hedgelink (@Hedgelink_UK) May 6, 2024

I feel very lucky to have access to fields and hedgerows within two minutes walk of my home. They are full of bird life and plants 

#301: Festival of Farmland Biodiversity

This is taking place in Ireland.

In May, the festival of #farmlandbiodiversity celebrates native hedgerows that crisscross Ireland's landscape.

To take part: share photos of hedgerows, use the hashtag above, and tag @BioDataCentre.

Check out https://t.co/hJpknO2H5E for resources such as this lovely graphic! pic.twitter.com/DifT7sFXYn

— Hedgerows Ireland (@hedgerows_ie) May 2, 2024

A lovely image for those exploring Hedgerows...

 

#249: 'Hedgelands' - coming April

This sounds like it is going to be an excellent addition to a growing library of recommendations. It is a new book by Christopher Hart.

As I've been creating this blog, I have come across numerous references to the value of hedgerows, particularly old ones with a large variety of species. They act as habitats, windbreaks, borders and management tools, as well as reducing wind speeds.

In this joyous journey around the wild edges of Britain, Christopher Hart takes us through the life, ecology and history of the humble British hedge, showing us how this much-loved (but somewhat overlooked) feature is inextricably woven into our language, history and culture.

Hedges – or hedgerows – have long been an integral part of the British landscape; a bastion of privacy for our gardens, a protective presence on winding country lanes and a vital hiding place for birds and beasts on farmland.

This man-made marvel is finally getting its time in the sun. Recognised as an environmental hero and a powerful climate ally, hedgerow is now considered the greatest edge habitat on earth, offering thorny scrub, mature woodland, grassland and even wetland. It plays a critical role in carbon sequestration and provides essential protection against the elements.

Hedgelands highlights the hawthorn and hazel of ancient hedges; the abundance of wildlife, from the elusive dunnock to the striking nightingale, the industrious hedgehog to the little harvest mouse; and the free pickings that the hedgerow offers, making it an essential – and delicious – element of any countryside ramble.

Hedgelands will tell you everything you never thought you needed to know about this wild, diverse and rich habitat – and you might even look at your humble hedge in a whole new way.

#246: Ditches

A very nice piece by Melissa Harrison in The Times on the 4th of November 2023 looked at the important role that ditches play in the landscape. This was followed up by a range of tweets on the value of ditches.

There is a tendency to focus on the grand elements of the landscape, but sometimes the smaller overlooked features are just as important for the wildlife that makes them a home: think about the rare ferns and other plants that thrive in the grykes on limestone pavements for example.

Those ditches are bursting with nature! pic.twitter.com/maNLeZiPU8

— Tom Clarke 🇺🇦 🌻 (@Tom_Clarke) April 28, 2023

In the Fens maybe more than anywhere else.

Ditches are our "inverted" hedgerows, and harbour some of the last strongholds for water voles and other critically endangered and red listed species. @FenlandSoil @CLR_Cambridge @NaturalCambs @BrianE_Cambs

— Tom Clarke 🇺🇦 🌻 (@Tom_Clarke) November 4, 2023

 Image: Fenland roads - Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

#229: Hedges in the news

Hedges were in the news with a report on the BBC News website by Helen Briggs saying that the length of the UK's hedgerows would go round the world ten times. It's based on some CEH data here.

Of course it used to be many times more, but miles of hedgerows have been lost - grubbed up to make more space, or to make larger fields to make farming more 'efficient'. Hopefully some protections are now put in place, and other new hedgerows can be planted - I noticed some going in on the edge of my Norfolk village last weekend.

The news article was picked up by a few Twitter accounts.

About half of Britain's hedgerows were lost 1940s-1990s, mostly in England - intensive farming & development.

Loss has slowed since 1990s, but neglect, damage & removal remain big threats.

Government promised in 2023 to create/restore 72,000km of hedgerows by 2050. https://t.co/8pXmqgQiRv

— Rachael Unsworth (@LeedsTours) January 30, 2024

There are plenty of overlaps with the potential content of the GCSE Natural History specification. Hedges are a linear habitat. Their existence reveals landscape change and links to the past, including enclosure. They are important for biodiversity, and vary in form in different counties.

Hedgelink has also shared the link to the mapping which has been done by CEH. 

Amazing hedgerow mapping from @UK_CEH 🌳 Hedgerow height and length has been mapped across England to build up a picture of the state of the nation's hedges. Click here for the data: https://t.co/UFDOQFz22w https://t.co/qlGi5iNDV5

— Hedgelink (@Hedgelink_UK) January 30, 2024

A comment on hedges from Robert MacFarlane to end this post. We will certainly be coming back to consider how we can create a resource related to the changing history of hedges. They need to be conserved and cherished according to this FT piece.

I like the description here by Robert of hedges:

Hedgerows are miraculous habitats: skinny wildwoods, bird-larders, carbon stores, species shelters.
Now first full (LIDAR) map of England's vast hedge-network is out.
Laid end to end they'd girdle the Earth ten times.
Let's celebrate hedges! Pics, stories?https://t.co/5Dx8UspiVq

— Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) January 30, 2024

He asked for contributions on the theme of hedges, and here is one that caught the eye, and is worth returning to:

"A bewitched curtain"...
here is the full poem, The Hedge, by @ZaffarKunial from "England's Green" (Faber) pic.twitter.com/Vdwb1sfwmI

— CeasefireNow (@lucyinnarnia) January 30, 2024

Update

Hedgerow schemes were featured on the BBC's Countyfile programme. There are some lovely quotes about the value of hedges in this feature on hedgerow restoration. 

The piece explores what makes a good hedge.

They have been part of our landscape since the Bronze Age, but more than half have been lost since the Second World War. Watch from 27 minutes in.

#186: Hedge consultation

The local Byline Times has a piece on a consultation that recently took place regarding hedgerows.

It seems amazing that anyone would consider that hedgerows should be removed.

Hedgerows are a vital part of the English landscape, dating back to times of enclosure, or marking the boundaries of areas of land. They are also a vital habitat for a great many animals - hedgehogs included one imagines.

The government was seeking opinions about the future of hedgerows – their maintenance, the current rules of management, the penalties and what the long term strategy should be. 
Defra states that “Amending the Hedgerows Regulations 1997 to include management measures would impact on all farmers and land managers in England who have hedgerows on their agricultural land, aside from those covered by various exemptions.”

This provides some protections for hedgerows currently.

 

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license

#151: CPRE: the countryside charity

The latest in a series of posts on organisations who provide resources and run projects which may be of interest to those teaching the new GCSE Natural History specification, and may well also make good visiting speakers for schools offering the new specification.

CPRE were previously known as the Campaign to Protect Rural England, but is now known as the countryside charity.

They have had a series of campaigns running for many years on the theme of protecting the countryside and raising awareness of the importance of some of the everyday elements of the countryside which people may not realise are of particular importance. These include campaigns on hedgerows, which are thereatened with removal in many locations.

In addition to their national website and policy work, they also have local groups focussing on specific local issues.

They have just released their latest report: a 2023 study on Local Green Spaces.

#105: Natural History Reading List #8: Land Healer: How farming can save Britain's countryside

Relatively new in my library is the paperback version of a book by Jake Fiennes, who is currently Head of Conservation on the 25000 acre Holkham Estate in North Norfolk.

This article in The Guardian says a little more about Jake and his work.

It describes the work that has been carried out at Holkham, and the earlier work that taught Fiennes the methods that he is now using. I used to be a regular visitor to the Holkham Estate when a relative owned a caravan which was located there, but he sadly sold out.

This previous article from December 2021 explores some of his conservation work on the coastal marshes on the Holkham Estate.

He has also been profiled in 'The New Yorker'. Limited viewing possible.

The book explores some of the projects that Jake has instigated, and makes suggestions for how farming can make a difference in a positive way. It provides a hopeful message for the way that farming could be - sadly the Government and those in charge of the crucial departments aren't listening to the right people it seems.

#45: Royal Horticultural Society projects

There have been two projects started by the Royal Horticultural Society relatively recently which may be of interest to schools. 

If I was to teach the new specification I think I would want to make it as active as possible, with students involved in practical actions to help natural history in some way, whether throuth citizen science, or through nature conservation projects.

The first one was from November 2022

It is a partnership with the Natural History Museum and the DfE.

The second was announced recently, and relates to hedges.

This explores their link to greener schools.

This is a two year project.

Image: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

#17: Hedging their bets

More news of mistakes by government recently, this time referring to hedgerow planting as part of the new plans for supporting wildlife in the countryside. 

Hedgerows are an important habitat for a wide range of species, and are really important for biodiversity. Some are hundreds of years old - those in Devon which are an important feature of the landscape are over 800 years old.

There was apparently a typo in the document that was previously published...

CPRE is 'the Countryside Charity' and has a particular focus on hedgerows.

Their hedgerows campaign is calling for #40by50. 

But what does this mean?

From the CPRE website:

The government loves talking about tree planting and peatland restoration, but it seems to have forgotten our hedgerows. 

We’re campaigning for them to commit to a target for planting and restoring thousands of miles of hedgerows across the country.

'We need a 40% increase by 2050 at the latest.'

40: We want to see the hedgerow network increase by 40%. This number was recommended by the independent Climate Change Committee and is equivalent to about 120,000 miles in Britain – half way to the moon!

50: This is the time frame. We need a 40% increase by 2050 at the latest. This requires adding over 4,000 miles of new and restored hedgerows per year, starting now.

For those in need of a definition of hedges, here's a useful one:

A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties.

Top image: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license - a hedge in Norfolk - love your local hedges...