How to halt the hedge warfare – a simple solution to a thorny issue

If environmentalists are serious about halting habitat decline, it will require a lot more digging and a lot less finger-pointing

Helping hand required: Planting and managing hedges is a lot harder than tweeting about them. Photo: Damien Eagers

March 08 2023 06:25 AM

The humble hedge has become the latest battleground in the ongoing row between those who call themselves environmentalists, and farmers who have always felt they were environmentalists.

Hedgerows are a thorny topic, and Twitter is a territorial minefield: one side will post a picture and claim that the torn limbs of bushes and trees is a form of gross habitat devastation, while the other side will insist that all the farmer is doing is flailing the hedge, laying the hedge or doing something hedge-related that encourages new growth.

Thus a battle ensues, with zoomed-in screenshots, finger-pointing, farmer-blaming and environmentalist-belittling.

At certain stages, the debate about whether a hedgerow has been callously killed or not has become so intense that I expect the next online evidence trail to show Dr Marie Cassidy, called out of retirement.

There she’ll be, resplendent in her white pathology suit, closely studying raw hedge roots by a windswept rural roadside with a Garda cordon around the crime scene.

In all seriousness, though, the hedge is a tool being used online as a stick to beat farmers with, because farmers are being blamed for the biodiversity crisis.

The environmentalist tweeting might not say this openly, but that is exactly what they are intimating.

This makes farmers angry because, while some of them are guilty of habitat destruction, more of them are usually trying to either maintain or enhance what habitat they have on their farms.

I am going to propose a solution to all this, but let’s set everything aside for the moment and focus on some facts.

There are over 600,000km of hedgerows in Ireland and by and large, farmers and rural dwellers are very proud of them.

They serve as boundaries, nature habitats, livestock shelters and a nice reminder of what makes the country so special and individual in comparison to the open, boring plains of other European countries.

Many farmers have called for hedges to be included in the calculation to offset carbon emissions, but that is a tall order, because no two farmers will treat hedges the same.

Some farmers will have neat and tidy, square boxes, where others will have blousy, flowery displays of honeysuckle and hawthorn blossom.

Sometimes, hedges have been treated too roughly, while the ‘neat’ hedge is not actually the best type.

Here is what the Hedge Laying Association of Ireland has to say: “The annual cutting of hedgerows has, unfortunately, become popular in Ireland in an effort to make them look neat and tidy.

“However, this is not necessary and reduces the biodiversity benefits of hedgerows because hawthorn blossom is produced on the previous year’s growth.

“This means that annually flailed hedges will not produce blossom to the same extent, which leads to no pollen for pollinators or berries for birds. The hedge itself is also damaged and stressed, with stems becoming gnarled and twisted due to the constant cutting at the same height.”

If we’re serious about using hedgerows to help offset our carbon footprint and become habitat reserves, then we’re going to have to accept that just because we’re farmers, we don’t inherently know how to cut a hedge.

Equally, sitting behind a phone screen, taking pictures of recently cut hedgerows and admonishing farmers as if they were naughty schoolchildren is not going to get anyone anywhere.

Luckily, there’s this thing called ACRES, an environmental scheme that includes native hedge planting and laying, and tree planting.

Over 40,000 farmers have signed up to it, and given that the best window for planting bare root hedges doesn’t open again until October, that should give plenty of time for volunteers to band together or farmers to reach out to local community groups to help them.

I’m sure some of you will think I’m mad, but I am perfectly serious. Myself and my mother planted over 1km of hedging last year with two shovels and several gallons of tea.

The physical exertion of planting is not to be underestimated — help will be needed.

Under ACRES, we’ll have another 1km to do plus a new native apple orchard and hedge laying.

Multiply that amount by what the 46,000 farmers around the country have signed up for and you’ll realise the scale of planting that will require and why something akin to a ‘Dig for Ireland’ campaign needs to be mounted.

Planting and managing hedges is a lot harder than tweeting about them, and if people are serious about halting habitat decline, it will require a lot more digging and a lot less finger-pointing.

Hannah Quinn-Mulligan is a journalist and an organic beef and dairy farmer; templeroedairy.ie