A Bird in the Bush is worth Two in the Hand
By Primal Sneeze ~ September 17th, 2007. Filed under: Environment, Farming, Wildlife.
It is not all that long ago that Ireland’s farmers were showered with grants for hedgerow removal. The reasoning was simple: taking out the hedges, filling in the ditches and laying new drainage systems meant larger field size and more arable surface area. Tillage farmers could use bigger, faster and more efficient machinery, and they could use it more efficiently as a machine covers more area in an hour the less times it must turn at a headland. Hedgerows on headlands also impeded crop production – they shade the crop and lower yield, and weed and pest infestation is more prevalent there.
In ways they were unwittingly shooting themselves in the foot. The hedgerows acted as natural barriers to insects and fungal pathogens. The artificial drainage systems, no matter how well engineered, seldom worked as well as the natural. Sheep farmers complained of foxes taking more lambs that usual. With the ditches and banks gone, so too were the rabbit burrows and the foxes had to find alternative food.
They were also destroying the habitat of so many animal, bird and insect species. Insects! you say. To hell with them. Horrible little annoying things that get in my hair while I’m out walking. Ever stopped to think what the pretty little birdies you so admire on your walks eat? I haven’t seen figures yet, but I can guess that many fledglings hatched this year died before leaving the nest, or shortly after, because their parents, or they themselves, couldn’t source enough food during the cold wet summer.
But were the farmers wrong? Not when you consider they were being advised by the experts and encouraged by the authorities- the EU. Were those experts and authorities wrong? Not when you consider that was the accepted wisdom of the day. There were an abundance of alternative habitats pre-Celtic Tiger when the population was lower and very few roads, commercial premises and houses were being built. The farmers were ill advised and the experts mistaken.
Once those errors were realised, actually a long time after they were, steps were taken to reverse the damage. The non-farming community were aghast that farmers would be paid to leave land idle under the set-aside scheme. It took a few years, but a lot of species recovered. I could see this myself. The REPS (Rural Environmental Protection Scheme) came later and went unnoticed by the general population. Substantial payments are be made for ensuring the preservation of wildlife habitats including hedgerows. This had an even greater effect.
Now I’m not a farmer, but the place here is bordered by hedges planted by my grandfather in the 1930’s. The roadside section is barren – the volume of traffic keeps all wildlife away from it. But the back, a stretch of about 180m, is high and wide. Some would say overgrown, but I say natural. Hawthorn flowers white as if weighed down by a blanket of snow. From my window I see branches drooping under a heavy load of red berries. Both wonderful sights, the second for birds too.
[Did you get this far, by the way? Or did all the talk of farming send you away?]
My problem is the Council are on my case to trim the front one. They have a legal right to insist, but it wouldn’t be an issue if they hadn’t resurfaced and widened the road, without consultation and all done for the Ryder Cup, but with the knock-on effect of trebling traffic volumes. It’s strange they are quoting the law now, yet encouraged land owners to trim their hedges before the legal September 1 date last year so as to have them looking pretty for the golf tourists.
But I can give in on this – it’s barren anyway as I say. My greater issue is the back hedgerow. Some of it has to be cut down to about 1m because of the house extension. I can relent on this too. But I am coming under pressure from my perfectionist builder who is insisting that the remainder will look bad if the rest is trimmed. Some of the neighbours have commented too, in their own subtle way – what are you going to do with that overgrown pile of shite, Primal? I have fobbed them off as politely as possible until now – mind your own business, ya interfering auld bollix.
They are right though. It will be an eyesore. If I am to cut it then January or February would be best. The birds would not go without their winter food supply and it would thicken up enough in time for nesting. But that would mean getting the hedge cutter in twice which is more costly – he’d have to re-trim the front to match. Plus the land is dry now and could be a swam come January.
Cut it now and be damned, you say. There are plenty of other hedges out there for the birds. There are wildlife reserves for them. But isn’t that passing the buck? Saying it’s not my fault, I had to do it – a common trait of late in Ireland. BSE as one of the papers called it yesterday – blame somebody else.
And if you’d ever taken a stroll with me at dawn when all is quiet you’d smile to see the birds feeding or nest building where they were meant to. For me, that is a far greater joy than watching them use an artificial birdhouse or feeder.
Nature never grew in straight rows.
I vote keep the hedge
Seconded.
Maybe you could get Dúchas or whatever they’re called now to slap a preservation order on it to keep the Jones’s off your back?
“I’d love to tidy it up, but I’m not allowed”
it seems like it’s too much work and extra cost to keep trimming all the hedges. If it doesn’t look really really awful, why bother cutting any of it? Does the front really have to match the back? It sounds wonderful at the back, all in tune with nature and a refuge for the birds and other little living things. What can you get away with doing or not doing (legally speaking)?
Most hedges and bushes do better with a little bit of trimming now after then, it stimulates growth in other areas, it’ll grow back. Before winter the birds should get plenty of food from elsewhere but do it before March before breeding season starts.
Grannymar – Yes, nature finds it’s own boundaries. A Hawthorn (Whitethorn if you wish) grows out and up only so far. Any further and it blocks it’s own light and stalls.
Aonghus – The funny thing about the whole scenario is that, in granting permission for the extension, the council stipulated 18 conditions, one of which was that the hedgerows not be taken out. I had suggested taking out the strip directly behind the new part of the house (to make it easier for the workers), fencing it and replanting, but they told me it was a heritage hedge in that it was there (according to their experts) 200 years. Pointing out that my grandfather who planted it was not alive 200 year ago was met with bewildered looks.
Gaye – Damn the work. Damn the cost. You are right – it is wonderful. Legally I can do anything I want as it is not part of the road-frontage.
I am beginning to think that I should just trim the top and not breast the sides (thereby leaving the berries) and hope the neighbours appreciate the compromise. They may not – unlike me, they want to think they are living in Wysteria Lane and not rural Ireland.
Young Knudsen – You snook in on me there while I was replying to the other folks.
I have been trimming for years – lightly with a slash hook where it was looking like getting out of hand totally. The birds will get food elsewhere I admit, but I just like them in my garden not on some pseudo eco-warrior’s kids’ birdtable.
But maybe you’re right. I starting to think it might be the best, if only for a quiet life.
MY father left thick hedges for the exact same reason, and he had a decent sized copse at the top of the farm which he allowed to be completely wild. We even had a badgers set there. He was a ferocious defender of the local wild life, spurred by the fact that there were a breeding pair of pheasants up near the barley field that he used to like to watch. One day while he was driving the tractor up the back lane he came across the hen lying bleeding on the side of the lane and the cock was gone. He knew fine well they’d been shot. The next evening him and Benjy- the farm dog, set off up the fields, him with the shot gun loaded with pellets and they waited. Sure enough at at two there were two fellas lamping across the back field. Dad let loose the dog and as the lamps were swinging over the gates he aimed where the lights were.
According to him, there was a loud scream and then a lot of cursing. It soon became common knowledge his land was off limits and there were two brother of a local reprobate family limping for a couple of weeks after.
Of course my mother went bat shit crazy and said he could have killed them and could have been arrested for attempted murder, but I have to say I was never prouder of him and to this day it was one of my more misty-eyed stories of my father.
I like your Da, FMC. A lot. A man after my own hedge, so to speak.
We had (what am I saying, we have!) a family like that around here: They pleaded with one of the local farmers for permission to shoot foxes on his land … doing HIM a favour like. He gave in eventually and regretted it ever since. The morning after the brothers’ first night on the land every single duck was gone from the river as were a lot of the rabbits. Nothing left but feathers, fur … and foxes.
Oh and, Of course my mother went bat shit crazy and said he could have killed them and could have been arrested for attempted murder, but I have to say I was never prouder of him and to this day it was one of my more misty-eyed stories of my father has convinced me to begin a comment of the week spot. I love it!
Primal, you do as you see fit with your own land. Better to have nature take the lead than in trying to conform to policy or the neighbors.
What a great story, FMC.
Medbh – Hedges and land aside, FMC’s story was pure class.