Hedgerows are a haven for nesting birds — and are protected during nesting season
Hedgerows are coming into bloom and are a haven for many nesting birds. Picture: Chris White / Alamy
Hard to believe — given all the changes and destruction to the Irish landscape in recent decades — but the country has almost 700,000 kilometres of hedgerows, according to Teagasc.
Around now, hedgerows are coming into bloom and are a haven for many nesting birds. From the days when country children walked to school, we remember peering into roadside hedges in spring and early summer and looking for nests which each one would protect and claim as their own.
Every day on their way to and from school, they would check on their ‘secret’ nest and would delight in the eventual emergence of chicks, which we called ‘gearrcachs’… redolent of Alice Taylor’s Ireland.
Apart from enhancing the image of 'green Ireland', hedges are also home to many insects and other wildlife.
Forming land boundaries is the practical function of hedgerows and farmers are given grants to plant, replace and maintain them. If a farmer removes a hedgerow, double the amount must be planted elsewhere on the farm, under grant conditions.
During research with Teagasc, a decade ago, PhD student Julie Larkin looked at 119 farms involved in varied agricultural enterprises across Cork, Kildare and Wexford, and found hedgerows to be the most abundant wildlife habitat.
Hedges also capture carbon, slow the flow of water over land, buffer pollution, and provide a barrier to wind, rain and sun.
Said Kate Smirnova, Hedgerows Ireland campaigns officer: “The predator protection, nest sites, and food that hedgerows offer to wildlife is vital during the breeding season when they are used by 55 of the 110 bird species regularly recorded in our Countryside Bird Survey." Unfortunately, in many cases, hedgerows are being mismanaged and removed for different reasons, like land reclamation and construction. Hence, grant schemes to aid their protection and incentives for new planting.
Since the 17th and early 18th centuries, hedgerows have been playing a key role in land management and division.
Botanist Valerie Hall, an expert on Irish environmental change over millennia, says school and community groups have a part to play in safeguarding local habitats. At national level, it would also be beneficial to recognise the importance of less well-known ecosystems in the same way as bogs and woodland.
In her book, , Ms Hall says wildlife corridors formed by miles of farm and roadside hedges are seen by people who might not have regular opportunities to visit native woodland, adding: “One can learn much about the habits and names of many common trees, birds, insects and mammals, by walking along a hedge; better still if the walk is done in every season of the year."
