HEDGES Project Page – a sub-project of Wilder Wenhaston

HEDGES – a sub-project of Wilder Wenhaston
 

Where we are today:

During and after the war, as part of the drive to produce more food ourselves, land was ploughed, drained, cleared and ‘improved’ with chemical fertilizers and weed killers. This continued after the war and thousands of miles of hedgerows in England and Wales were destroyed or lost through neglect in the 1960’s and early 70’s.

The mechanization of hedge cutting means that hedges are routinely over managed annually, and Councils cut verges and ditches thereby depleting the hedgerow’s wildlife value. This, alongside the intensification of farming, driven by the constant pressure on farmers to produce more food, cheaper for less return, has resulted in huge numbers of insects, farmland birds, mammals and plant species being lost or have dramatically decreased, and remaining wildlife friendly places are fragmented.

In June 1992 the UN held a conference in Rio de Janeiro known as the Earth Summit which the first major ‘wake up’ call to address the loss of biodiversity internationally. 

The Suffolk Wildlife Trust published “Suffolk’s Changing Countryside” back in 1995 highlighting the habitat losses here in Suffolk where 80% of the land is farmed and still the declines continue. Many miles of hedgerows have been lost in the last 60 years, for example there is one field in the village that comprised of seven fields just after the war and this change has been replicated across the landscape.

Having said that there is evidence locally that hedges are being restored and new hedges planted.  We need to build on this work.

Associated to this are many species of farmland birds in serious decline. For example, corn bunting, grey partridge, turtle dove, starling and tree sparrow have all declined by at least 90% since 1970.

Surveys:

A Suffolk County hedgerow survey was carried out between the years of 1998 and 2012.  This arose from the Suffolk Coastal District Council Local agenda 21, Hedgerow Working Group. Over 12 years, some 2000 volunteers surveyed 44, 984 field boundaries and the results have been published by Guy Ackers and are available to view on the East Suffolk Council website at https://www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/assets/Environment/Green-Issues/SuffolkHedgerowSurvey1998-2012web.pdf

And another Ash survey following the arrival of Ash die back disease Hymenoscyphus fraxineus was carried out by Blyth Woods in 2015.

Wild East:

Wild East is a registered charity which was established in 2021 in East Anglia by three committed conservationists all of whom are part of the local farming and business communities.  Recognizing the destruction of our landscape and the precipitous declines across all species, they are driving a campaign to return 250,000 hectares of land (20%) to nature across East Anglia, to slow, stop and reverse the alarming ecological declines which are happening on our watch.  They are looking for everyone’s support, whether it is a patch of land at the end of your garden, or a corner of the churchyard or playing field, or a green area in a village or an area of unproductive farmland.  Whatever the size we can all play our part in helping to achieve this target.

As part of Wild East’s ambitions, they are currently digitalizing the maps of hedgerows in East Anglia based on the survey completed in 2012.  Wilder Wenhaston have been talking to the trustees of Wild East to find ways of working together. 

Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service SBIS:

Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service is Suffolk's biological data centre, and they have a database with over 5 million records.  They collate, manage and share species and site data to help inform better decisions and actions to benefit Suffolk's wildlife. 

SBIS has used data to create GIS datasets of tree canopy cover and hedgerow quality by Parish.   For hedgerow quality, agricultural field boundaries were overlain with the tree polygons and statistics such as gappiness, average height and volume were attached. County and Parish maps have been made showing these and can be uploaded at https://www.suffolkbis.org.uk/hedgerow/pdf_maps  Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the maps for Wenhaston.

Sustainable Farming Incentive:

In August 2023 the Government published the Sustainable Farming Incentive and this link is relevant to hedgerows SFI actions for hedgerows - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).  There is guidance on how to carry out the actions for hedgerows (HRW1, HRW2 AND HRW3) at How to do the SFI actions for hedgerows - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)  Landowners are now therefore able to access Government funds to help with the restoration and improvements of hedgerows.

Conservation in Wenhaston:

Projects have already been undertaken by some private landowners and farmers over recent years to help redress the situation and have already made a difference.  It is encouraging therefore, that at a very local level the adverse trends can be reversed. These are isolated pockets of improvement though and although very valuable and creditworthy, much more could be done across the parish to help link up these areas, particularly through hedge management and hedge margins.

We are fortunate to have existing conservation groups in the village, the Commons Group, Blyth Woods and the Swift Group, who have been working hard over many years.  Wilder Wenhaston is working with these groups to help bring together and build on improvements across the Parish.

What Wilder Wenhaston (WW) has helped to achieve in Wenhaston so far:

As part of the Wilder Wenhaston ambitions we are working with landowners and our other local environmental groups to try and make a difference. 

• At Fox Hill on the Bramfield Road WW volunteers helped plant 3,000 hedgerow plants and 4,000 trees in the winter 2022/23
• At Blyth Woods since 2017, 3250 trees have been planted and an overgrown silted up pond was cleared. One and a half metres of silt were removed, an indication of how long ago it was last cleared.
• On Blackheath 500 trees and hedgerow shrubs  were planted in 2023/24
• Off Bartholomews Road a field known as The Norfolks, was shown as a wood on a map dated 1971 and had two ponds and another on its boundary.  All three ponds were overgrown and silted up and were cleared out by the landowner in the autumn 2022.  In winter 2023/24 WW volunteers helped to plant 9,000 native trees to return it to woodland.

Brief description of our project:

• Hedges and the hedgerow trees are an important feature of the Suffolk landscape and restoring and improving the hedgerows, if possible, would greatly benefit wildlife.  They provide important habitats for wildlife and act as a band of connectivity between different habitats within the parish.
• To record and trace changes made to hedgerows within the parish over recent years.
• With the permission of landowners, survey existing hedgerows and record findings.
• Cross reference to the Heritage tree project.
• To work with landowners to try and restore and improve hedgerows and where possible and practical, plant more trees.
• Encourage more sympathetic hedge management implementing 3 to 5 year cutting regimes where possible.

Work in progress and planned:

• Research historic maps to identify the history and location of hedges within the historic landscape.  Link up with work done by others.
• Parish maps have been downloaded from the Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service (SBIS) which show detailed information about the field boundaries.  These are being used as a basis to help us identify areas WW can focus on.
• With the permission of landowners, carry out a survey of existing hedgerows and their trees.  Record the health of the trees. 
• The Healthy Hedgerows app has been downloaded for help with surveying for the Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI) and this is a link to their website Healthy Hedgerows (ptes.org)  Once hedges are surveyed and downloaded to their database, management advice is given to help maintain or improve the hedge.
• The Heritage Tee survey was completed in 2023 and the data sent to SBIS.  It is available to view on our website HERITAGE TREES – a sub-project of Wilder Wenhaston » Wenhaston with Mells Hamlet (wenhastonmells-pc.gov.uk). Information in this survey can be linked to the hedgerow survey.
• Survey the existing wildlife recorded in different areas for use as a benchmark. 
• Where possible and with farmers and landowners, restore and replant lost and gappy hedges, recognising that modern arable farming and large machinery requires bigger fields than in the past.  
• Consider with farmers and landowners how hedgerow cutting might be modified to improve the wildlife value of hedges both in terms of food availability for wildlife and nesting possibilities.
• Identify with farmers and landowners where trees could/might be planted, ie, in existing hedgerows, field corners, expanding or planting new woodland etc.   
• Investigate the possibility of free hedge and tree packs via Woodland Trust and other Community organisations and/or funding possibilities.
• Organise volunteers who might be interested in planting new hedges and mobilise volunteers and plant hedgerow plants and trees.
• Work with other groups in the village and the Blyth valley cluster https://www.blythvalleycluster.com/.
• Aim to plant 200 metres of new hedgerow/infilling gaps over the next year.
   

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