Biodiversity
Action
Plan
Conservation of hedgerows:
Hedgerows were removed in large numbers in the second half of the last century across the country, including to an extent in Barnsley.
Although the Hedgerow Regulations, introduced in 1997, protect hedgerows against removal, neglect and a lack of positive management continue to slash the value of hedgerows and affect whether they survive. In addition the threat of removal has not gone away.
Factors causing hedgerow loss or decline
- Removal of field boundary hedges to enlarge field systems, or for open cast mining or development; or replacement with fencing
- A lack of hedge-laying, shrub and tree replacement, and good general hedgerow maintenance
- Too frequent, badly-timed cutting; unsuitable mechanised methods; repeated cutting at the same level thinning the hedge base
- Too little maintenance leads to overgrown, tall hedgerows; these become scrub or a line of trees as the hedgerow base is shaded out
- Herbicides, pesticides, fertilisers and ploughing to hedgerow base
- Overstocking with livestock, resulting in browsing damage.
Good practice
Flailing and cutting hedgerows requires careful timing and method to provide a diverse hedgerow habitat and good hedgerow structure.
- Manage hedgerows if their setting allows so that they become large, thick and dense; avoid excessive, too frequent trimming.
- Trim hedgerows no more than once every two or three years and cut slightly higher each time. Avoid annual cutting.
- Try not to cut all the hedgerows on a site or the whole length of a hedgerow in any one year.
- Protect existing older and veteran trees in hedgerows and leave other tree species in the hedgerow to mature.
- Hedgerows are best sustained by laying on a 8-15 year cycle, which produces new growth at the base.
- Maintain a hedge bank or grassy strip near the base of the hedgerow for native grasses and flowers to grow.
- Do not apply herbicides, pesticides or fertilisers within 2m of a hedge.
Legal protection.
Hedgerow Regulations 1997.
Hedgerows that are important from an archaeological, historical, landscape or biodiversity perspective are protected by the Hedgerow Regulations.
Under the Hedgerows Regulations 1997, it is illegal to remove or destroy these hedgerows without permission from the local planning authority. See below for criteria.
Other protection
Hedgerows may also be protected by local planning policies for particular sites and by being associated with Local Wildlife Sites.
Specific trees in hedgerows may be protected by Tree Protection Orders (TPO)
Links:
BMBC Supplementary planning doc (2019)
The majority of well-managed hedgerows will be thick and dense, without gaps, and with a strip of uncultivated ground alongside.
They will be trimmed no more than every 2 to 3 years, cut slightly higher each time.
Hedgerow BAP favourable condition
Size: ≥1m high; ≥1.5m wide; 3m xsection
Gaps: ≤ 10% gaps; no gaps ≥5m wide;
base of hedge canopy ≤0.5m above ground
≥2m undisturbed ground /≥1m herbaceous cover alongside hedge
≤ 20% cover of nettles, cleavers and docks within 2m band alongside hedge
≤ 10% non-native woody species / ≤ 10% non-native herbaceous species
Hedgelink and PTES give useful information and advice on hedgerow management and surveys.
PTES’s Great British Hedgerow Survey classes hedges as being dense and well managed; too frequently or over-trimmed, tall and overgrown; or being recently planted or rejuvenated by laying or coppicing.
Links:
Hedgelink resources and advice
Hedgerow Conservation