The importance of hedgerows to the Irish countryside – and the benefits they bring – are being highlighted over the coming days as Teagasc Hedgerow Week 2020 kicks off today (Monday, December 7).
Hedges give the Irish landscape its distinctive character and field pattern and provide an important wildlife habitat – especially for woodland flora and fauna, the Irish agricultural authority notes.
In addition to biodiversity, hedges have many values including food, cultural heritage and landscape. They have a role in carbon storage, regulating water flow and helping protect water quality.
Teagasc Hedgerow Week 2020 runs from today until Saturday, December 12. The week of activities was formally launched by Pippa Hackett, Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity.
During the week, all aspects of hedges will be featured, including: their history and current extent; their values and best practice management for management practices of planting, cutting and rejuvenation.
The Teagasc Hedgerow Week starts today with the story of Irish hedgerows.
John Feehan, retired lecturer in the faculty of agriculture in University College Dublin (UCD), outlined the history of Irish hedgerows, stating: “Before the 17th century, it was a very different kind of farming over most of Ireland and there was a very different kind of landscape to go along with that.
It was much more open, unenclosed, and animals had much greater freedom to roam. This was the case until the arrival of the agricultural revolution when farms were divided up into small enclosed fields. Hedges were a functional tool to enclose animals or to exclude them.
“Most of the internal hedges on farms would, very generally speaking, date between the beginnings of 1700 to 1820-1830.
“In the early years particularly, it was achieved largely in responses to Acts of Parliament which compelled landowners to plant so many yards of hawthorn [whitethorn] every year,” Feehan added.
Keena hopes that Teagasc Hedgerow Week 2020 will ‘sow the seed’ in the mind of farmers to establish new native Irish hedges over the coming years, resulting in the enhancement of their farms and the Irish countryside.