A new national organisation, Hedgerows Ireland, is calling for specific legislation to be introduced to protect ‘Ireland’s rainforests’ – native hedgerow.
The group recently met with, and stated its concerns and aims to, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM), Pippa Hackett and Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan.
Its message was clear – it wants new legislation in the form of an amendment to the Wildlife Act that will specifically protect hedgerows.
According to the Teagasc Irish hedge map, Ireland is home to approximately 450,000km – or 6.4% of cover – of hedgerows, individual trees and non-forest woodland and scrub.
According to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), this is the third largest total hedgerow area in the EU.
Hedgerows provide habitats for wildlife and play a role in carbon sequestration and, in light of our current climate situation, need protecting and enhancing, according to Hedgerows Ireland.
It also believes that existing legislation such as Section 40 of the Wildlife Act, which prohibits hedge cutting each year from March 1, to August 31, and European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011-2015, are insufficient.
Hedgerow-removal response
The organisation initially formed in south Tipperary as ‘Save our Hedgerows’ in response to the discovery that native hedgerow was apparently being removed by Irish Rail as part of a fence-replacement scheme.
Up to 6km of hedgerow was removed between 2017 and 2020 along a “significant biodiversity corridor” from Waterford to Limerick Junction, according to Dr. Alan Moore, a spokesperson for the now rebranded Hedgerows Ireland.
“Our group received expert advice that prior to removal of extensive hedgerow, there should have been a ‘screening for appropriate assessment’ exercise carried out under the terms of Regulation 42(1) of the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations, 2011 but this did not take place,” said Dr. Moore.
In communication with Irish Rail at that time, the organisation was told that this was not necessary, said Dr. Moore.
But, he added, such an assessment would have revealed the biodiversity importance provided by this habitat corridor.
“For example, Birdwatch Ireland has reported nesting sites for red-listed barn owls along this particular stretch of the railway line.
“A different fence-replacement approach with retention of the hedge corridor alongside the new fence should have been employed as a result, we felt,” Dr. Moore told Agriland.
The response to this hedgerow removal was driven by local landowners and farmers in the area and it commenced a journey that the groups believes has revealed the vulnerable status of hedgerows, not just along railway lines.
No protection for native hedgerow
“We discovered that hedgerows have no specific protection in law in this country.
“The Wildlife Act 1976 is the only legal protection that the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) can use, but it is an indirect protection for nesting birds and it only applies in the nesting season.
“If a landowner wishes to remove more than 500m of hedgerow [outside of the season], they are obliged to make a submission to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine,” Dr. Moore said.
But, he added, the success rate for such applications is 93-95%. This information was obtained from a 2018 study carried out by Neil Foulkes, called Assessment of Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) Regulations on Field Boundary Removal.
According to the DAFM, these Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations afford protection to hedgerows, stone walls and clay banks.
The regulations further stipulate that: “If the length of field boundary to be removed is greater than 500m, or the area of lands to be restructured by removal of field boundaries is above 5ha, then an application to DAFM for screening is required”.
EIA applications in 2020
According to data from the DAFM received by Agriland, 76 applications were made under the EIA Regulations in 2020.
Fifty-six of these related to the removal of hedgerows and 40 of these were granted.
42 applications in total were granted in 2020.
Queries regarding breaches of these regulations were unanswered by the DAFM “due to cases ongoing”.
In response to enforcement of the regulations, the department said that “where the EIA section is made aware of a potential breach, administrative checks and inspections are carried out”.
But Hedgerows Ireland believes that greater resources must be made available to the NPWS to ensure that hedgerows are monitored and protected where necessary.
In its representations to Ministers Hackett and Noonan, the group stated that it wants all applications to the DAFM for restructuring work under the EIA Regulations, to come under NPWS scrutiny prior to approval.
“We want clear criteria for hedgerow removal versus retention to be drawn up, and consideration of local landscape and biodiversity to be included in all cases.
“We want current regulations which include permission to remove up to 500m of hedgerow without screening, and up to 4km of hedgerow without automatic EIA to be scrapped with revised lower limits and criteria adopted.”
NPWS strategic review
The organisation has also made a detailed submission to the strategic review of the NPWS, announced this year. The review is chaired by Dr. Jane Stout, who is a botany professor at Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
Part of its submission stated:
“The Wildlife Act 1976 confers indirect protection only in the nesting season and this is greatly constrained by NPWS staffing and management issues.
“A further concern is that EIA submissions to the DAFM under ‘restructuring’ applications are almost 100% approved by officials and that NPWS involvement in these ‘decisions’ is ad hoc and rarely occurs due primarily to a lack of referrals from DAFM.”
Dr. Moore said Hedgerows Ireland is not primarily a protest organisation, and that the promotion and financial rewarding of farmers for good hedgerows is of, at least, equal importance to improved legal protection.
The group has made a submission to Ministers Hackett and Noonan proposing a results-based, three-tier Greening Payment based on quality and height and width of hedgerows.
He said that the organisation is clear that most farmers are in favour of good hedgerows, but need far better support and adequate payment for their key role in combating biodiversity loss and climate breakdown.
A farmer’s view
Michael Hickey is an organic farmer in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, and is a member of Hedgerows Ireland.
Image source: Hedgerows Ireland
Some of the hedgerows on his 100ac farm are aged up to 80 years’ old, he told Agriland, but around him, there has been a significant disappearance of these features.
He laments the loss of biodiversity that has resulted.
“Curlews, snipe, so many birds, they are all gone. And the trouble is that people who are younger don’t even remember those birds, they don’t understand how evocative the call of the curlew was. And for those who do remember, it’s like it was another world,” he explained.
Happy medium
Michael said that a “happy medium” can be found between shaving a hedgerow to the ground and retaining one that can be nature friendly.
“I don’t understand why some farmers can’t allow hedgerows to have three or four metres of growth.
“If you only have a metre or a metre and a half of hedgerow, you are absolutely limiting the diversity of the birds that can nest there. That is only one species, you also have the solitary bees and the various other insects and animal life that exists.”
Michael believes that a more concerted effort to protect the countryside is required from all farmers across the country now. His involvement in Hedgerows Ireland is based on this belief.
“It has reached the stage where some kind of legislation is needed now. But that is unfortunate because law is the lowest common denominator, in the sense that it sets a low baseline, which people must adhere to in order to stay on the right side of the law.
“But it is important to incentivise too and that is why we are proposing a three-step understanding of hedgerows and for people to receive payment on the different tiers of their hedgerows.
People are beginning to really take notice of the issues that are impacting the environment, Michael noted.
“There is a tendency for people who live in the countryside to think that there is eternal countryside and eternal biodiversity, but even the most unobservant person sees that it is in danger and once you get past the tipping point of anything, it just suddenly disappears,” he concluded.