England’s hedgerows are home to 130 native wildlife species including hedgehogs (hence their name), yellowhammers and song thrushes. Hedgerows also help to prevent water run-off which leads to fertile topsoil. 85% of our hedgerows have been lost in the 100 years, and this means more soil blows away in the wind, and stores less carbon.
Understanding Hedgerow Loss
Farming practices have changed drastically over the last century. During the agricultural boom in the mid 20th century, many hedgerows were removed to make way for larger fields that could be worked easily by machinery.
Expanding towns and roads also encroached on our countryside, and pushed out hedgerows. Before, hedgerows bordered nearly every field, but once removed, the landscape was left exposed and less connected.
The sad fact from this as hedgerows are vital for biodiveristy, their loss has affected countless species – from birds to bats, and from insects to mammals. Without these natural corridors, wildlife struggles to remove, feed and breed.
Removing hedgrows also leads to soil erosion, which in turn weakens local ecosystems. Fewer hedgehows means less carbon is stored, and this worsens the climate challenges we already have.
Finally, hedgerows are steeped in history, as they date back hundreds of years, and tell stories of England’s past. Not just to mark boundaries and shelter livestock, hedges also inspire writers to artists, and losing them is like losing part of our cultural identity. .
Benefits of Restoring Hedgerows
As hedgerows act as highways for native wildlife, restoring them is like giving all our favourite creatures new dream homes. They will then easily be able to access natural food, shelter and nesting sites, without any help from humans.
Birds like song thrushes rely on hedgerows for nesting. And insect pollinators like bees and butterflies feed on hedgerow flowers. Restoring our hedgerows, literally is the answer to burst our countryside back to life.
Not just for living creatures, restoring our hedgerows will have great benefits to prevent soil erosion, by breaking the force of wind and slowing water run-off. This helps to protect fields from damage and flood, which in turn helps our small organic farmers.
As hedgerows store carbon in their branches, leaves and roots – restoring hedgerows also helps to reduce climate change, by regulating local temperatures, providing windbreaks and improving resilience to extreme weather.
Steps to Restore Hedgerows
Begin by assessing your local area (perhaps ask your local council where the hedgerows are, and how you can help). Map out the gaps, and identify which hedgerows need restoring, drafting in local volunteer ecologists and wildlife experts, to help you identify what’s needed. Once you have a survey of what needs to be done, you can begin planning.
Farmers can help hedgerow wildlife, by leaving seed heads and leaf litter (and not trimming hedges from March to August, when birds and mammals are nesting). If all farmers went organic, we could restore our hedgerows to previous numbers, within a year.
Many hands make light work. So ask councils and businesses for funding or resources to get started, and draft in local volunteers to help.
Choose native plants to restore hedgerows, as they will grow better, be easier to maintain and support local birds and wildlife. Popular choices are howthorn, blackhorn, hazel (endangered dormice will love you) and field maple. Also be sure to include plenty of berries for birds and flowers for pollinators. The Conservation Volunteers has a downloadable guide to plant or restore neglected hedges.
If planting hedges, use no-dig gardening to protect wildlife. Most hedgerow plants are poisonous to pets (fruit pips/seeds, elder, borage, mushrooms etc).
Do research before planting hedgerows near horses, donkeys and livestock and as many (including yew, privet, laurel, buckthorn and holly) are not safe. Learn of trees/hedges to avoid near horses (including yew, oak and sycamore).
If foraging, only take what you need, to leave some for wildlife. If you see young ladybirds (which look like baby alligators) on nettles, don’t forage until they’ve flown, in a few weeks later.
Case Studies of Successful Restoration
Conservation groups nationwide have been working to restore England’s hedgerows. In Devon, farmers worked with local volunteers to restore miles of lost hedgerows, by adopting traditional hedge-laying methods and planting native species. This in turn has created habitats for dormice, birds and countless insects.
In Lincolnshire, councils have funded projects to restore hedges, improving wildlife corridors for species that were losing their natural homes.
A Wander Around England’s Greatest Habitat
Hedgelands takes us on a joyous journey around the wild edges of Britain, to explore the ecology and history of the humble countryside hedge, and how it’s woven into our language, landscape and culture.
Ancient hedges are human-made boundaries that are not critically important havens for native wildlife. Despite having lost half of them since the Second World War, Britain still has around 400,000 km of remaining hedges to enjoy and protect.
In this book, the author shares the history of the hedge, highlighting the hawhorn and hazel of ancient hedgerows, and reveals the abundace of wildlife that live within our hedges – from the elusive dunnock to the iconic nightingale, and from the industrious hedgehog to the tiny harvest mouse. And hows how restoring our hedgrows can help to rebuild havens for many of our birds, mammals and insects.
The book also covers how hedges play vital roles in mature woodlands, grasslands and wetlands. Through rewilding a patch of land in southwest England, he shows how easy and rewarding it is, to restore even the smallest stretch of hedge.
Hedgelands is brilliant. It has taken my love and appreciation of our precious hedges to another level. Please buy it, read it and share it with everyone you know who has enough space to plant a hedge. Brigit Strawbridge Howard
A glorious anthem to the hedge! Never was there a more urgent time to restore our degraded hedges into the lifelines they should be for our beleaguered wildlife. Keggie Carew
