Slash season commences

A few days from now, hedge cutting machines will be back in action all over the countryside, slashing down hedgerows before the harvest they produce can be eaten by the creatures depending on them. Days when flocks of finches fluttered among the foliage, thrushes weren’t a rare sight and hedgehogs commonly crossed our paths are long gone. But nature has a way of recovering itself, given small chances, and I really hope that if you’re reading this and you’re a landowner, you’ll give a second thought to what happens on your turf. Every year, a humongous tonnage of berries and nuts are laid to waste as hedges are cut to within an inch of sustainability. Come the spring, growth takes much longer to become a viable habitat for anything when bushes are treated this way, meaning nest sites are not there in time, and as cutting takes place in early autumn, there is neither food nor shelter for birds or animals over the winter. A whole ecosystem is being effectively wiped out by a practice that makes little sense, offering the sole benefit of marginally less competition for arable crops. If you are looking to destroy sanctuary for wildlife in the hope of saving some money, there are plenty of hardier birds and beasts that will do more damage to your harvest than finches and thrushes ever could. Even with this excuse

in mind, the scale of destruc- tion we all have to witness seems to defy all logic.

If you value the heritage of Britain’s countryside, surely its fragile inhabitants are worth some consideration. If this letter prompts you to spare one line of hedgerow, just one, then at least some of the potential for wildlife to thrive will have been afforded by it, and a year of provision for creatures that should matter will have been well worth

the time it took to write these words. Offering a heartfelt thank-you in advance. Kathy Ratcliffe

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