Hedges
Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 3:05 pm
In the interesting article entitled "How the humble hedgerow can help us breathe" Dr Mark Tilzey wonders why the potential of the hedgerow is so ignored. The article can be read here https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... athe#img-1
Many hedges are flailed every year when it would be much better if more communities formed hedge laying teams to offer an alternative to the flail. The favour could be repayed by allowing the hedge laying teams to take home the firewood released by thinning.
Young trees growing in the North Yorkshire Moors. ‘Millions of trees, such as ashes and oaks, do not need to be planted – they just need to be allowed to grow,’ writes Dr Mark Tilzey. Photograph: Mar Photographics/Alamy
A major omission from proposals to increase the number of trees to meet the UK’s climate targets is the hedgerow, a characteristic but woefully underappreciated feature of the British landscape (Support UK farmers to meet climate targets, ministers told, 28 September)
Our hedgerows are amazing – England alone has 400,000km of them. Sadly, the predominant form of “management”, annual mechanical flailing by tractor (which discharges huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere), suppresses the growth of millions of potential trees already in the hedgerow. So millions of trees, such as ashes and oaks, do not need to be planted – they just need to be allowed to grow.
Why can’t we manage our hedgerows more permissively, allowing trees to mature at regular intervals? If trees were allowed to grow at intervals of 20 metres, yielding 50 trees/km, we could gain 20m trees in England alone. This is a conservative figure, and we could easily grow one tree every 10 metres. This would yield 40m new trees, with no need for planting and no cost.
The big mystery is: why are we so neglecting the potential of that quintessential feature of our rural landscape – the humble hedgerow?
Dr Mark Tilzey
Routenbeck, Cumbria
Many hedges are flailed every year when it would be much better if more communities formed hedge laying teams to offer an alternative to the flail. The favour could be repayed by allowing the hedge laying teams to take home the firewood released by thinning.
Young trees growing in the North Yorkshire Moors. ‘Millions of trees, such as ashes and oaks, do not need to be planted – they just need to be allowed to grow,’ writes Dr Mark Tilzey. Photograph: Mar Photographics/Alamy
A major omission from proposals to increase the number of trees to meet the UK’s climate targets is the hedgerow, a characteristic but woefully underappreciated feature of the British landscape (Support UK farmers to meet climate targets, ministers told, 28 September)
Our hedgerows are amazing – England alone has 400,000km of them. Sadly, the predominant form of “management”, annual mechanical flailing by tractor (which discharges huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere), suppresses the growth of millions of potential trees already in the hedgerow. So millions of trees, such as ashes and oaks, do not need to be planted – they just need to be allowed to grow.
Why can’t we manage our hedgerows more permissively, allowing trees to mature at regular intervals? If trees were allowed to grow at intervals of 20 metres, yielding 50 trees/km, we could gain 20m trees in England alone. This is a conservative figure, and we could easily grow one tree every 10 metres. This would yield 40m new trees, with no need for planting and no cost.
The big mystery is: why are we so neglecting the potential of that quintessential feature of our rural landscape – the humble hedgerow?
Dr Mark Tilzey
Routenbeck, Cumbria