Donal Hickey: Cutting hedges — there are better options
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It’s a strange irony that the EU, which has spent billions in funding intensive farming during much of the last half-century, is now spending billions through several schemes to help restore an environment that has been hugely damaged in this so-called modernisation of agriculture.
Vast changes in the Irish landscape since the 1970s — most obviously the removal of ditches and hedgerows — are there for all to see. In many places, the countryside has changed almost beyond recognition, with many small fields often becoming one big field.
Of course, these defining features are also bulldozed for reasons other than farming: to make way for road developments, housing and shopping centres, for example.
The practice of using hedges to divide and manage land can be traced to the early 18th century, with a strong preference for hawthorn which is an ideal hedge shrub as it is thorny, grows quickly and can mingle with other shrubs and trees.
Hedges also acted as a source of wood and were suitable for growing trees like ash, which provided timber for hurley-making. And they created habitat for many other plants, flowers and wildlife.
In her book, , Professor Valerie Hall noted that the period from about 1650 to 1750 saw major alteration to the lowlands, where hedges marked potato, flax and cereal fields as well as pasture for farm animals.
Environmental groups, including Birdwatch Ireland, are now calling on Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue to stop allowing the removal of hedgerows on farmland as it poses a threat to a range of endangered bird species.
Hedgehogs, stoats and a range of insects also make their homes in hedgerows while wildflowers provide food for essential pollinators, such as bees, from spring to autumn. There are also practical benefits for landowners in the way of drainage and shelter for livestock.
The Department of Agriculture currently permits the removal of up to 500 metres of hedgerow on every farm outside of the breeding season for birds, provided the same length of hedgerow is planted elsewhere beforehand. However, environmentalists claim there’s no regulation which allows features to be removed and replanted elsewhere.
Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) plan for the period 2023-2027 proposes to continue this practice, but will require that if hedgerows are removed, twice the length of hedgerow must be planted within 10km of the location of removal.
More than €3.6 billion will be paid out to farmers from 2023 to 2027 and environmental groups are demanding that the conditions for this public funding are adhered to. They also point out that new hedgerows take years to mature and their value cannot be compared to those they replace.
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