Live 24-Seven - Preserving Wildlife
Hedges our heirlooms
Richard Bakere, reserves officer for Gwent Wildlife Trust, extols the virtues of laid hedges, whilst encouraging anyone with an interest to learn how to keep this ancient management practice alive…
Since mankind first domesticated livestock, the need to contain, control and protect these valuable animals has required the development of efficient stock proof barriers. This evolution has culminated in the laid hedgerow, a beautifully efficient structure that, with the right maintenance, forms a long- lasting and self-repairing structure. The magic of partially severing a growing stem, laying it down, trimming, staking, crooking and forming a living barrier, impervious to any animal or weather, never fails to amaze me.
The acquired experience of generations has perfected individual styles suited to each and every location. Long before catwalks swayed with fashionable clothing, hedges had their own unique styles. In the far west, where the land is lashed by howling Atlantic winds, hedges are strengthened by high earth banks topped by relatively low and flat hedges, a perfectly optimised design for the situation.
Hazel dormouse. Photo Ian Pratt
Where the winds are less ferocious, in the rolling valleys of the Welsh borders, the styles have mellowed, with lower banks and stems laid at a more upright angle. A myriad of factors has influenced how hedges have evolved; the local type of stock, ground conditions, weather, available manpower and tradition have all played their part.
Once established and with sympathetic management, hedges have historically sustained for hundreds of years. The enormous benefit to wildlife of this tradition is that it has evolved with the hedges, making our hedges an interlocking wildlife network teeming with plants, animals and insects of all shapes and sizes.
Within the bank found at the foot of most hedges, small mammals like the bank vole will
112 Blackbird. Photo: Zsuzsanna Bird
find a safe refuge away from the disturbance of the open fields. The ancient stumps of the hedgerow trees can last for generations, as the repeated cycles of laying and trimming reduce the rate of growth of the tree and prolong its natural life beyond that of its unmanaged brothers. The varied trees found in each hedge can help signify its age, with old hedges gaining the most recruits over the years.
Favourite hedgerow species include hawthorn and blackthorn for their natural stock repelling properties, but the unlucky elder finds few friends with hedge layers due to its tendency to grow rapidly and then die back. Wildlife-rich, old hedges often have more than six woody species within a 30 metre stretch and some hedges also retain unusual trees which have been lost to our wider landscape, like the once-mighty elm.
Photo: Neil Aldridge
Amongst these ancient stumps and their entwined younger growth, blackbirds, robins and tits, amongst others, find safe nesting and feeding opportunities. This protected network of branches also allows the small arboreal dormouse to move safely around, without fear of being snatched by predators. Traditionally, in some areas where aspect allows, occasional, individual trees may be left to grow to become mature standards as a useful source of timber and firewood; these transitory monoliths would have been chosen and managed carefully so as to avoid damaging the hedge below.
In recent times, the hedge’s primary role as a stock proof barrier has been taken on by wire fencing. This has often resulted in big changes to how hedges are managed. The next evolutionary step for our hedgerows will probably see relatively few hedges being
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