Should farmers be made to save hedgerows?

I AGREE with the plea to farmers to let their hedgerows grow to provide food and shelter for wildlife (Letters). Every autumn, just when the hedgerows are covered in fruit and berries, local farmers employ contractors to slash them to no more than a couple of feet high. All the berries, which provide a winter feast for birds, are lost and it’s well into April before there is any new foliage. This means there is nowhere for farmland and garden birds to nest or roost. Inevitably the number of fledglings is compromised year on year. I was a member of the RSPB for more than 30 years and when I wrote to them suggesting they should use their influence to lobby the National Farmers’ Union and the Government about this hugely important issue, their response was less than helpful. So wrongly or rightly, I left the organisation in disgust.

BOB WINDSOR, Newmarket, Suffolk.

UNTIL a couple of hundred years ago, there were no hedges, so I can’t see that removing some of them to allow more efficient growing of food would have any effect on climate change. I’m sure that the crops growing in large fields absorb more carbon than a hedge and help to feed people rather than squirrels, which are basically rats with fluffy tails. Oilseed rape provides far more pollen for bees than a blackthorn.

JOHN RAVEN, Beccles, Suffolk.