Hedgerow Week is the focus of the next webinar in the Teagasc Signpost Series to be held on 26 August, 2022 at 9.30am. Catherine Keena, Countryside Management Specialist at Teagasc, will talk about best-practice hedge cutting.
Ireland is fortunate to have a network of about 680,000km of native hedgerows remaining, but this valuable resource is being destroyed at an alarming rate. Up to 2,000km of hedgerows are being removed annually to make way for agricultural expansion, according to an official estimate from the Environmental Protection Agency, but research from Co. Monaghan puts the figure even higher.
Apart from unnecessary removal, research has found that most of our hedgerows are in poor condition, with extensive gaps and often very severe annual cutting regimes, which prevents them from reaching their full potential.
Hedgerows are part of Ireland’s national heritage, and are vital for carbon storage and biodiversity protection. Other benefits include flood and drought prevention, soil improvement, shelter, shade and landscape definition. They also contribute to the mental wellbeing of the public, and farming families in particular.
Hedgerows provide vital resources for mammals, bird and insect species especially older, denser and more species-diverse hedge types. Two thirds of Ireland’s native birds nest, feed or both in hedgerows. Bees and other important insects vital for crop pollination need hedgerows to survive. One third of Ireland’s wild bee species is threatened with imminent extinction. More than 600 of Ireland’s 815 flowering plants are found in hedgerows.