Suffering death by a thousand cuts

IT’S ironic that a time of a year when new life begins to spring forth, we also have large-scale destruction of natural features of the landscape and wildlife habitat, in Ireland.

Illegal hedgerow cutting is damaging to wildlife and the Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is appealing to land managers to stop.

Hedge cutting typically starts in late February and March and continues well into the summer months but – unless for reasons of health and safety – this practice is prohibited by the Wildlife Act from March 1 to August 31.

At this time of year, birds and mammals are breeding while flowering is providing seeds for the next generation. Nevertheless, is seems some local authorities only start cutting hedges in the summer months, creating eye-sores and causing untold destruction to wildlife.

Hedgerows are essential in providing habitats and corridors for maintaining wildlife diversity, supporting species such as badgers, owls, hedgehogs, stoats, blackbirds and innumerable plants, butterflies and other insects. Not only are they an invaluable reserve for much of our wildlife, they are important in providing pollinators, cleaning our air, defining our landscape, storing carbon and, by holding back the flow of water off land, they can alleviate flooding.

“In spite of all these benefits, the Irish hedgerow is suffering ‘death by a thousand cuts’. They are frequently mismanaged, flayed to within an inch of their existence, or simply removed during the construction of one-off houses and replaced with invasive alien cherry laurel – a plant of no value to wildlife,” says IWT chairman Padraic Fogarty.

He is urging the public to report instances of illegal hedgerow cutting to the IWT, which are followed up with letters to the relevant county council and the Minister for Environment. People can email the relevant details, including date and location to: [e-mail].

The hedgerows that define our countryside were planted by landowners to enclose their land, mostly from the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s. Over time, they have come to provide a home for nature, giving them a value that was not initially intended and making them an important part of our heritage. As Ireland has so little native woodland, hedgerows have become vital nature reserves and corridors for wildlife. A survey by the IWT in the late 1980s revealed that 37 species of shrubs and trees and 105 species of wild flora had been found in them.

The Celtic Tiger era, however, has taken a huge toll, resulting in the obliteration of countless thousands of kilometres of hedgerows to make way for roads, housing estates, private houses, shopping centres and other forms of development.

In many rural areas, the landscape has changed almost beyond recognition since the 1960s. The intensification of farming in the 1970s and ’80s when ditches were removed to turn, maybe, three or four smaller fields into one big field, also led to widespread destruction of hedgerows.

And, like many other matters at EU level, action is later taken to reverse, or repair, the damage, with the REPS scheme being a classic example. Thousands of Irish farmers are now in REPS which offers payments to those willing to practice environmentally-friendly farming and, in so doing, help to conserve the landscape. Most hedgerows began as earthen banks, on top of which a row of whitethorns was planted. Sometimes, trees such as oak and ash and beech were planted and, over time, wild plants and animals began to colonise.

Eventually, a wider variety of shrubs and plants took root: we seem them in full bloom in spring when they bring a tapestry of vivid colour to the land, with some producing berries, nuts and fruit in the autumn – all very much taken for granted.

About half of the 110 bird species recorded in Ireland use hedgerows for nesting, but the hedgerows are also home to many other forms of plant and animal life. Butterflies can also depend on hedgerows, as their food plants grow beside them, while drains can be home to frogs and other creatures that like a little water and moisture in the ground.

Turning to a related subject – gorse burning – fire brigades are busy in some parts of the country, at present, putting out fires in mountainous areas. Every year in places such as Kerry, hundreds of acres of forestry are destroyed by these fires. Parts of the mountains around Killarney and Glenbeigh were still ablaze last week, even though the gorse burning season ended on March 1 and remains closed until August 31, under the Wildlife Act. Most of the burning, however, seems to takes place during March and April.

The purpose is to burn off unwanted vegetation so to allow fresh growth to come through. However, there have been cases of loss of human life in such fires and damage to homes and other property. Gorse burning can also have devastating consequences for wildlife, including ground-nesting birds.