Mike Dilger’s wildlife watching
Why our hedgerows are a hotspot for birds, butterflies and bank voles
The importance of the humble hedgerow as a ‘wildlife B&B’ cannot be overestimated. Commonly encountered lining a plethora of roads, railways, footpaths, fields and gardens, these green arteries crossing town and country must be considered one of the most easily encountered of all our wildlife habitats.
Effectively representing strips of woodland habitat, hedgerows come in all shapes and sizes. There’s everything from heavily flailed and gappy hedges to huge, mature bushes festooned with other plants. However, the most nature-friendly hedges tend to be those tapered in shape.
Diversity is crucial, too – a variety of woody species, such as hawthorn, blackthorn and field maple, occasionally
overtopped by oak, ash or beech, is best. Rambling plants, such as bramble, honeysuckle, wild roses and clematis, will be a prominent feature. And the hedges’ foundations will be peppered with associated flora: garlic mustard, cow parsley and hedge woundwort. Together, this array of plants encompasses a wide range of flowering and fruiting times, which in turn will attract everything from bats and birds, to slugs and shrews.
It has been estimated that over 1,500 species of invertebrates are found living either in or around hedgerows. They also support up to 80 per cent of all woodland birds and 50 per cent of our mammals. These linear habitats serve as crucial wildlife corridors between remnants of forest and the wider countryside.
Some of the very finest hedges represent fragments of ancient woodland left standing while the surrounding forest was clearfelled by Bronze Age farmers. These veteran hedges are frequently on parish boundaries and represent irreplaceable pieces of living history.
Still, more hedgerows are essentially man-made and were planted to demarcate ownership, while additionally providing both shelter and stock-proof barriers for cattle.
These more contemporary hedgerows were largely planted on common land as a result of the various Enclosure Acts during the 18th and 19th centuries – laws that were designed to exclude peasants from land they had previously used for communal farming. Frequently dominated by hawthorn in long, straight lines, such hedges are notable by the absence of poorly colonising species, such as hazel, dogwood and spindle. Be aware, though, that when attempting to assess the age of any hedge, those very recently planted by individuals and
organisations with an interest in nature might not be as old as they first appear!
In 1946, there were an estimated 800,000km of hedgerow in England alone. But encouraged with financial incentives, by successive governments keen to improve agricultural productivity and obsessed with Britain’s selfsufficiency, farmers simply erased many hedgerows from the landscape. The Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, for example, estimates that in the dark days of the 1980s nearly 10,000km were being lost each year. This meant that by 1993, the combined mileage of English hedgerows had been reduced by over half, to about 379,805km.
Ironically, now that hedges’ immense contribution to both our biological diversity and cultural heritage has been retrospectively realised, grants are now in place to turn the tide. It is hoped that measures to encourage the protection of remaining hedgerows, and the replacement of others, will repair some of the damage from 50 years’ worth of such environmentally destructive practices.
These linear habitats serve as crucial wildlife corridors between remnants of forest and the wider countryside.