Image credit Jan Andersen-Page Artography
"Our expectation is that wherever we have wildlife habitats, whether that is a hedgerow or meadow, woodland or wetland, heathland or downland, we expect them to be well looked after and in good or improving condition. That is one of the requirements of our target to have at least 50% of our land achieve our Nature friendly standard by 2025. In addition to that we are restoring or creating a further 25,000ha of new wildlife habitats – including planting new hedgerows where they have been lost.
To achieve this improvement, on our own, directly managed land, we are working with our ranger teams to ensure our hedgerows can become tall and broad to benefit species which use these features as a corridor such as dormice and bats, providing continuous protected routes for them to travel in relative safety. Hedges of this nature provide excellent nesting sites for birds such as yellow hammer and provide important food through berries and fruit, with plentiful haws, sloes, crab apples and blackberries for many species such as redwings, blackbirds and badgers. Rare species of butterfly such as brown hairstreak will also have a chance to thrive if this type of management becomes prevalent.
On our land that is let under long term contract, we have less direct influence. In those circumstances our teams are increasing the amount of time spent with tenant farmers in order to get as many as possible adopting what we consider to be best practice – which for hedgerows would be cutting only a third every year – unless they are alongside a road, in which case an annual cut is acceptable. There is grant funding available to support this as it is a departure from current normal practice which is to cut in the autumn. This happens because it is a convenient point in the farming year and it is when soil conditions are usually good to enable cutting, but it results in the loss of cover and food over the winter and so hugely diminishes the value of the hedgerow for wildlife. However the current scheme is highly competitive, so not everyone who applies gets an agreement.
I’m very sorry to hear of your report of twice annual cutting becoming the norm, this is surprising as I would have thought the extra costs alone ought to put people off doing it, except maybe along a road or a path where it might obstruct passage. In terms of what we can do to improve practice more widely, we have, alongside other environmental organisations (e.g. The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, Nature Friendly Farming Network), been discussing with Defra what will replace the current system in England of standards (that currently prevent cutting during the bird breeding season from 1March to 31st August) and grant support to encourage a changed pattern of management (such as a cut every third year). We would like to see better management of all hedgerows being introduced into the new Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme – the first of three new environmental schemes that will pay farmers to produce public goods, such as biodiversity and climate change mitigation, alongside food production. This scheme will be available across England and if people apply they will get an agreement, so it would be a much more straightforward way to achieve a change across all land."
To achieve this improvement, on our own, directly managed land, we are working with our ranger teams to ensure our hedgerows can become tall and broad to benefit species which use these features as a corridor such as dormice and bats, providing continuous protected routes for them to travel in relative safety. Hedges of this nature provide excellent nesting sites for birds such as yellow hammer and provide important food through berries and fruit, with plentiful haws, sloes, crab apples and blackberries for many species such as redwings, blackbirds and badgers. Rare species of butterfly such as brown hairstreak will also have a chance to thrive if this type of management becomes prevalent.
On our land that is let under long term contract, we have less direct influence. In those circumstances our teams are increasing the amount of time spent with tenant farmers in order to get as many as possible adopting what we consider to be best practice – which for hedgerows would be cutting only a third every year – unless they are alongside a road, in which case an annual cut is acceptable. There is grant funding available to support this as it is a departure from current normal practice which is to cut in the autumn. This happens because it is a convenient point in the farming year and it is when soil conditions are usually good to enable cutting, but it results in the loss of cover and food over the winter and so hugely diminishes the value of the hedgerow for wildlife. However the current scheme is highly competitive, so not everyone who applies gets an agreement.
I’m very sorry to hear of your report of twice annual cutting becoming the norm, this is surprising as I would have thought the extra costs alone ought to put people off doing it, except maybe along a road or a path where it might obstruct passage. In terms of what we can do to improve practice more widely, we have, alongside other environmental organisations (e.g. The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, Nature Friendly Farming Network), been discussing with Defra what will replace the current system in England of standards (that currently prevent cutting during the bird breeding season from 1March to 31st August) and grant support to encourage a changed pattern of management (such as a cut every third year). We would like to see better management of all hedgerows being introduced into the new Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme – the first of three new environmental schemes that will pay farmers to produce public goods, such as biodiversity and climate change mitigation, alongside food production. This scheme will be available across England and if people apply they will get an agreement, so it would be a much more straightforward way to achieve a change across all land."
