In denmark they estimate that every farmer has about 5% of their land that they could give back to rewild. Often where crops flood.. which is perfect for wild nature.
The U.K. has the 2nd lowest forest cover in Europe, 13% vs France 29%, Germany 32% and Poland 33%. Hedges act as a poor replacement for wild woods so they give wildlife a home away from intensively managed farmland.
It is worth mentoning, especially to farmers, that hedgerows and wildlife corriders provide high value pest control services. Predators like birds, weasels, spiders, hoverflies, ladybirds, lacewings, beetles and many more need the refuges of the hedgerow to survive winter and be ready to eat all the pests as soon as the season starts. They also harbour pollinators for the crops that need them, like flax, peas, seed crops, soft fruit, tree fruit, all benefit from native bees, nutterflies, flies, etc.
So do areas of trees/ copses and scrub land and meadow. The problem with hedgerows is that they often do not work for their primary purpose which is to contain livestock (they weren't meant to be primarily wildlife havens ) and they need to be trimmed every year which is time and expense to the farmer.
@Dirpitz Many hedges were never even laid properly in the first place and even if they were they need o be relaid over time as their effectiveness in containing livestock diminishes. Of the 250 acres our farm has I would say that only 20 acres of our land is bordered by effective hedges. Re laying hedges is a long slow and expensive job and their just aren't enough people to do the jobs. Sure they might work once they have been relaid properly but again thats expensive and time consuming, if there were government grants and people willing to do the work I would happily relay all my hedges on the farm but as it is its easier to fence fields and just leave areas of land wild that are no good for agriculture for wildlife.
@Dirpitz Also car traffic does not effectively trim road hedges at all in the countryside and if left untrimmed people would start moaning about poor visibility and their cars getting scratched I guarantee it.
I'm an HGV driver and travel all over the South East, East anglia and East Midlands. It is very depressing to see the decline in the hedgerows. Many are being left to die out, some have only a few field trees to show where the hedge used to be. It's not a surprise we have lost half of our farmland birds.
I was driving in England for couple of months 2 years ago(also HGV). And it was actually good to see from my perspective that they existed. I am from Poland, where you dont see them pretty much at all. And there you could go and stroll, pick up blackberries. They were between the fields were you could go freely without anyone bothering you are telling you that its their property. Its sad that it is not more widespread across the world and they are in decline in England.
I'm a lorryest and my patch is mainly Dorset, miles and miles of hedgerow, but poorly maintained because the old skills have been forgotten. It also urks me because its all resource, its mainly Hazel, was used for thousands of years but replaced with metal and plastic. I've recently got right in to hedge laying, so I think I'm going to join a group and get out there.
Well done, I was reading an article that said we have lost 118,000 miles of hedgerow in the last 50 years! And what is left is not in great shape, it also said we have lost 90 million field birds.
@@benjaminwilley3578 same here in the south, Theres a whole fridge in one of my local hedgerows. and this hedge row is quite wide and a deep basin shape and usually half the year is a wetland floodplane swamp pond like habitat, if a hedgerow isnt already important, the fact its also a mini wetland habitat makes it even more important in our sea of fields and concrete, and heres litter from your normal beverage cans all the way to whole kitchen appliances. looovvee fly tippers...
In Ireland you can (could?) get EU grants for moving your fences back a bit and rewilding the gaps. Many have because it's a great excuse to have your new fencing and time spent doing it paid for. You should of had it pre 2016...
This is litterally my job: inventorise hedgerows, replant existing ones or create new ones and coppice the ones that are growing old. In Belgium, a lot of focus is being put on hedgerows the last couple of years. So glad it's starting in Britain as well because you have a lot more of them then we do!
@@jeneral-jeff8402 It's one of the fields of expertise of an employer called Regional Landscape. We try to be the bridge between farmers, culture, landscape, tourism, nature and history.
My municipal government (~170,000 people) in the Netherlands has identified all green areas, and divided them into different tiers of nature. Most of them are parks, of course. They're making plans to connect those areas. For this, they are asking people to help by replacing tiles in their gardens with soil and plants, and use fences instead of walls for their gardens. This all to create wildlife corridors in the city. I'm so excited for this project, bringing nature back into the concrete jungle. Seeing the project in this video really is great, as it shows there are many people who try to find ways to improve biodiversity.
I remember working on a farm in the midlands, we knew the farmer very well and he had just bought it (he had a huge potato farm in Yorkshire too). He ripped up all the hedgerows like he had done in Yorkshire. He was a disgrace and needless to say we walked off the job in disgust. It’s amazing and heartwarming these young people are restoring such treasures!
It is hard for people to see the behind the scenes benefits I think. The benefit to more farming land is clear. The benefit to more hedgerows is less immediately clear. Sad really.
@@CamimalFPVThen the government should incentivise recovery of hedgerows for farmers. Improved education and communication on their benefits would be great as well.
Well farmers are always claiming to be so informed about the land, and how they are caretakers. I realise I am likely conflating good farmers with bad farmers and I apologise for that, but the country has been deforested for mass amounts of grazing fields... farmers dgaf about nature from the looks of it (many of them anyways, with most of the land) @@31Blaize
I feel like so much of rewilding efforts are these small, unsexy projects. You have to start from the very bottom, supporting the soil and the bugs, in order to support the birds and then larger wildlife. I've seen a difference in my own yard since planting more native shrubs and perennials. And I'm excited to keep planting. We can create wildlife corridors in our own yards. Thank you for highlighting this project!
We started a vegetable plot in our garden and also have some fruit trees. After a long process of learning we leave some spots more or less in peace, we created a shelter for wild bees... This years the wild bees who live in our own garden were busy polinating the fruit trees right at the start of spring. The ladybugs are waking up. It's amazing how nature wants to help, when we help it.
When I was a child hedges were fascinating for foraging berries, watching wildlife and generally getting stuck in when trying to escape after scrumping apples or sweetcorn! They are vital for birds and wildlife Yes in a garden they need a bit of maintenance but are so much better than plain fences and AstroTurf
Yes! I've been trying to hype up wildlife corridors for 15 years. I designed an urban/suburban model where wildlife could move through a metropolis without ever setting foot on a road.
Kind of like this hedgerow idea. Design corridors through cities, intercity, etc. linking ever larger tracts in a grid. We already do it when there's a river for example, just use fences, bridges, etc. It is easier/cheaper and more grand if people would build new communities with it in mind, but I've looked at places like San Francisco for example and found with just a few relatively small links, there could be a green belt across the entire city. Nature bridges are just starting to be popular, bridging nature spaces over highways, this would be the same in reverse, bridge the roads over the green belts. The overall effects would be animals could move freely across a whole region, state, etc. migrate without crossing roads, a cougar could move from Santa Clara to Berkeley without having to walk through city streets (which they have been doing now for a number of years). This would also provide an increased bioload, increasing diversity and population, providing spaces for smaller animals to populate that would make larger animal populations more stable. It wouldn't matter how big a metro area was. A pack of wolves could walk by skyscrapers and be on the other side of a city without ever interacting with people. @@sokodont
A very important topic. Little is still said about the fragmentation of environments. About 30% of butterfly species in Europe live in isolated habitats. Many of them do not exceed a few hectares in area. Even the slightest change in such an environment can cause them to be lost. Thanks for bringing up an important topic.
I'm still in the South of England Hedgelaying society. There's too many gappy hedges that need a tidy up. When they're a row of trees that won't do much of anything for wildlife.
It's amusing that at the time of the 'enclosures' people were writing letters complaining about the awful hedgerows and the way that they blocked the views of the then open countryside... how times change. 🙄
Have a look at how hedges used to be maintained, they were a thing of beauty, a well played hedge is so multifunctional, not like the spindly, gappy, over grown, useless boundaries they are now.
@@terryteed1903 Yep, I lay some of my hedges myself, but it is a very labour intensive job, looks good, works pretty well, but a lot of effort. And it was only done every decade or so - the wood being a crop, just trimming was an annual thing. 👍
The problem with the enclosures act was that is denied people access to land they used to be able to freely walk (something that still affects England an Wales today). So it wasn't so much hedgerows per se, just they were now solid bounderies. Were they fences the same complaints would have been made. But many hedgerows predate the enclosures act as well.
Have you ever been to the Netherlands? When I was in the UK I was amazed how beautiful your farmlands looks! In Holland for example we don't have any of this! They are extremly big field next to each and we don't have any planted corridors (headge rows) between them, at least it is extremly rare.
That's also common in Spain, I figure it happened due to the development of bigger monopolised fields with one owner instead of the traditional small fields divided by hedges
Come to western Slovakia. There are the biggest monocultural fields in whole Europe. Communists wanted to implement new easier seeding techniques so they destroyed many of the hedgerows. I have been to the Netherlands several times and your fields arent that big as in western Slovakia :)))
In southern Limburg the landscape looks similar to the one in the video and there are still hedgerows dividing fields. Like in the UK they have been disappearing though. Luckily there are some projects aiming to restore these hedgerows and other traditional landscape elements like "graften". This is both beneficial for the ecology and a good method to limit issues with water runoff in the hills so it's really a win-win.
One thing that England seems to do better at than Scotland from an ecological perspective is hedgerows. I’ve been left impressed with the amount of hedgerows to be seen during the few times I’ve ventured to the English countryside. We seem to lack hedgerows here, with land being divided with fencing alone. I think the implementation and maintenance of hedgerows should be made mandatory, they are incredibly important habitats and as you show in the video - vital highways connecting different woodlands together.
While largely true, this varies across our farming systems - I would guess Ayrshire still has a better hedgerow infrastucture than Lincolnshire. But in Scotland we never had the same hedgerow maintenance culture that England had. Look into most English hedges and you will see evidence of historic hedge-laying practices. It would be extremely rare to be able to find anything of that sort in Scotland. In part this is down to speed of growth and length of season for hedgerow species, but it is also down to the timing of farm enclosure relative to industrial expansion and the distances from industrial employment. Historically, hedgerow maintenance was very labour intensive and by the time that Scottish hedgerows reached the age where this was needed, the labour resource was simply no longer available on our farms to do the job properly.
I really loved this video and without the drone footage I wouldn’t have been able to visualize what you meant about the importance of connecting the woodlands with corridors. Fantastic video Rob!! Thank you 🙏🏻 and well done!! You look 👀 bright 💛 happy 😁 and merry 🌿!! Cheers!!
Better than those ''stop oil'' people on the street, bothering everyone. I wish these projects were here in the Netherlands too, or even better... rather world wide.
Good for u guys…. I flew over northern mid-Britain in 2005 and 2008 and could see the lack of hedge rows in that part of the country. It was all farms and my aerial view showed them leaking huge quantities of top soil into the rivers, very tragic for farmers and the environment. Hedge rows especially along rivers increase biodiversity as mentioned, stop soil erosion, beneficial insects, wildlife corridors, river and water health, and improve farmers yields through soil conservation, I’m sure you know, cheers🌹
It’s honestly very relieving that there are so many other people that actually care so much about nature and giving it it’s place. Keep doing the great work you guys are doing and anyone else that does just 1 small thing creates a massive help throughout the world
You just made me think of the way I ride my bike to work. An open field - with a bicycle path. But not even trees or hedges planted along the way . just bushes on that part would be great - and now I need to suggest it.
When I was a boy there were hedges, copses and small strips of u farmed land everywhere, eventually they were ripped out chopped down and ploughed up as the por farmers were pushed to produce more and more, it will be lovely to see them return
I live on my family farm and take pleasure in making our hedges and woodland as wildlife friendly as possible. Far too many farmers get somebody unqualified to hack away at hedges to save a bit of time and money without realising it'll cost them in other ways. Not just that, but it's also upsetting to see ancient hedges ripped out for housing developments too. I'm delighted to see more hedges and woodlands being planted in this country.
Yes, hedges are amazing and not that common in many other countries. I remember all the hawthorn hedges that flourished in the north of England when I was a little girl. In fact in those days, the Lancashire County Council used to plant them alongside new roads, protected by a fence until they were established. I doubt that happens any more. When they grew large enough, they were 'laid' by skllled people to provide a stock-proof fence. Every decade or so, they would be laid once again to keep the growth thick and tangled. Nowadays, too many of them are cut with slashers and are no longer stockproof - or dense thickets were small animals can be safe and small plants can grow. Replacing ancient skills with machinery, is just another casualty of our over-exploitation of Nature's generosity.
Modern hedge planters always seem to plant them on flat ground. Look at old hedges, they are almost always ontop of a earthen bank. Makes a much healthier, longerlasting hedge that is much much better for keep stock in where you want it. Although hedgerows of anysort are wonderful. I planted 30m this winter on my smallholding, 10 different species, and next year I will be plants 100m of mixed species, and 2 x 100m rows of hazel to be in a coppice. Coppices are very important, they have been mostly wiped out though, you need them for hedgelaying. Loose old hedges are great in their own ways, but many species rely on tightly woven thick layed hedges. Love what you do, keep up the good work
I always find a shame seeing how much farmland is used for livestock, acres and acres serving a mere few dozen sheep that could be filled with crops instead. I wonder if this is because meat is more valuable as I'm pretty sure that a crop field can produce more calories per acre per year.
You are thinking about it the wrong way .sheep and grass are net fertility builders their by product is wool and meat .crops are net fertility consumers and require imported fertility .whats more research has demonstrated that pastureland and meadows are diverse species rich ecosystems both above and below the surface ,while crop lands unless rotated and organic are both depleted and imbalanced .
In Nature I love being in nature because in nature there is no separation. Yes, there are still barriers - wide, raging rapids; sheer, towering cliffs; jagged mountain peaks - but there are no artificial boundaries, no borders to break the world into pieces where there would otherwise be a vast, expansive oneness. Most boundaries in nature are blended, seamless transitions from one place to the next; a seaweed-strewn, tide-washed beach where land gives way to the sea; an ancient mountain forest gradually thinning out to a few bowed, stunted trees. Rarely is change abrupt and jarring, split by a straight line as though brutally severed from the environment around it. Unlike man-made spaces, which force a rigid, crude form of order upon anything that does not conform to our convenience, through innumerable incremental adjustments (and the occasional cataclysmic shift) nature has found balance, and settled independently into a state of stable, finely-honed equilibrium. Take a step back and you see that nature is not necessarily wild because it is unruly, capricious and chaotic, but because it is untamed by rules that refuse to cooperate with the spontaneous, unregulated rhythms that already govern it. We are obsessed with portioning the world out into manageable segments, bulldozing through ancient landscapes instead of diverting around them, building fences around things - both literally and figuratively - in an attempt to own and control what is contained within. We enforce invented laws and impose arbitrary limits. Walls and rules that shouldn't exist stifle, constrain and constrict, blocking the invisible currents that carry forward so many drifting spirits, and all I want to do is smash straight through them in a steady, steerless course towards the horizon and beyond it. Admittedly, certain rules and boundaries must be set in order to prevent injustice, but only because we still haven't learnt to stay our own selfish, greedy, apathetic impulses, because we are still unwilling to admit that there is no inevitability to conflict, and because we have forgotten how to exist in harmony with the land upon which we live. Unlike the human world, where I feel in constant competition with others for my place in it, wherever I find myself in nature is exactly where I belong. Without the juxtaposition between who I am and who I am expected to be, between how the world is and how it should flow unobstructed around me, I am free. I become a wandering awareness no longer at odds with the world. My bodily boundaries blurr outwards until they've dissolved completely, and I cannot tell the difference between where I end and everything else begins. In nature I can dip my toes in a stream and feel the pull of the sea.
I've often thought we should be applying this principle in urban development too. Connect every green space in urban areas with narrow undeveloped corridors that can be left to nature. Impossible to do consistently with roads in the way but I get the feeling new housing developments could do a lot more, as it's practically nonexistent currently.
I was born and raised in the Uk in Scotland and in Sussex in England. I emigrated to Australia 40 yrs ago and it’s sad to hear these hedge rows have diminished. This is a wonderful initiative and l love hearing young people be so enthusiastic about nature. I’ve subscribed to your channel 👍
Great insight by Jack from Young Wilders, its the 'little' things that make the practical difference. Love the idea and planning behind the planting of the corridor. Be nice to hear more about that. Great video, hope this concept gets rolled out beyond Essex
*"The rolling valleys and the pastures of the highlands of the British isles could be considered as natural, but they aren't. These spaces were formerly covered with trees, but humans and pasture animals have cleared them in some millenniums, and by the action of livestock they became meadows of different types, according to the soil constitution and the underlying bedrock. Meadows survive as long as shepherding continues : If it ceases, the process of succession resumes. Then weeds and other herbs sprout, and the little trees acclimate. Slopes are quickly dotted with hawthorns and other bushes and, finally, the forest is settled...many high moors are burnt frequently to foment the growth of new heath to the grouse's benefit : without these fires, the land would become a forest once again."* This is an extract from a nature's book by an english author named Michael Chinery from 1979. The book I own is in spanish ('cos I am an spaniard) so I translated it to english.This is why it may not be a very good translation but a good attempt.
a hedgerow helps provide fragmented and disrupted habitat if anything. Would be much better if the UK just rewilded all those vast tracks of empty grass between the hedgerows.
Even my friends who are not interested in nature comment on the lack of insects stuck to the front of their cars. I've read articles that we have lost a third of our flying insects due to pesticides and habitat destruction.
It's so great to see how your channel has grown! When I joined you had less than a thousand followers and look at you now. It's rare for me to watch all of the videos from any subscriber but you and Mossy Earth always seem to pull it off. So how can we create a model that doesn't require people who don't own the land to get involved? How can we set it up so that farmers are incentivized to do this themselves on their own land? A way that they can make money no matter if the government is involved or not.
The landscape view is very similar to norfolk. We have lots of trees, hedges and water holes but they are spread out and disconnected between enormous fields! Love this reconnection of the lanscape!
Well, since you mentioned it... Do you know if there's any such youth / whoever rewilding and environmental groups around up north? Specifically Lancashire, Derbyshire, Cheshire kind of way? 'Cos if there isn't, I feel a burning need to try and organise one. (Do or do not, there is no try.) Thanks, you're the bestestest.
It started with a push to produce more food following scarcity of the Second World War.long before the Eu was invented .There was no going against the ministry of agriculture in those days .!
look into landscape ecology, specifically fragmentation, wildlife corridors are only a plaster for ecology. They do not create an edge effect. Rewilding needs to be done on a bigger scale, and one of the components to achieve this is precision fermentation.
@@andrewtrip8617 component -a part that combines with othe r parts to form something bigger. I hope this does not come a cross as patronizing I just don't understand what you mean.
I think the last article I read on the loss of hedgerows was in the Guardian but have seen similar figures before but I can never know there accuracy. With regard to management of surviving hedgerows I agree just from my own experiences driving around the South East. The height of an hgv gives me great views across the fields.
The real truth is the whole Europe needs to green a lot, much much a lot what they have been doing. They love to complain about countries in developments, but close their eyes about themselves.
Actually, Europe has been the leader in "greening" for generations. Even around the world, it's Europeans who are funding the movements. All of the biggest polluters in the world are non-European nations. Only Europe has the history of preservation and conservation. Not India, not Zimbabwe, not Peru or China or Pakistan.
@@threeriversforge1997 we export our emissions to those countries and act surprised when they turn natural landscape into industry. your comment lacks that context
@@threeriversforge1997 - Really? Why is that? Isn't it because they can't compete the prices of the food that are being grown in other countries and then stopped producing them? So, that just makes Europeans fakes complaining and complaining when they are among the most consumers of goods, traveling to everywhere, having nice wood furniture, expensive clothes in the world. I wanted to see this "transformation" happening in Europe if they needed to produce all things they consume. Have a nice day, you hypocritic.
@@MrOlympuse410According to nasa data the increased greening of the planet is down to increased co2 concentrations in the atmosphere .as nice as hedges are they will never come close to the benefits of co2 .
We need this in Ecuador. There are so many misunderstandings and prejudices about leaving or building natural corridors between each piece of land, such as that when the shrubs or trees grow, they will provide a lot of shade and affect the crops, or that it has no positive effect; or it attracts animals and they will eat the crops, etc. When it's the opposite. Erosion is prevented, soils are kept motter, there is greater fertilization, and so on...
Most hedges around here are flailed to death around here in Cornwall by farmers that there anything left for animals or birds to feed on in winter, once it was common to hedges full of winter berries and wild bird now they are barren and devoid of life.
Fantastic video and thank you Hedgerows my life long worry watching their Demise and along with it less wild life This is fantastic news and great to see something is being done thanks for keeping us posted Thumbs up 👍🏼
The UK used to have so many more hedgerows before fzrmers were forced to enlarge their fields to maximise production. Many of which were defined by hedgerows. So many also had ponds. Initially they were used to provide water for livestock but in time water troughs were provided and the ponds were left for wildlife. Back to the future I guess, although the burgeoning suburban sprawl will present challenges. Wildlife bridges across busy roads & motorways can also play their part.
Love this channel. In Denmark most of our countryside is ripped of hedgerows. Within the past 10 years it has gone from worse to appalling with lack of decision-making, lack of notice and a legal hunt for all possible firewood to throw into power plants as "green" renewable energy. If you like me live in the countryside of rural Denmark where fields of more than 1 square km is growing in numbers and seem to be the dream of all remaining farmers, it is so depressing to look at. I'm a biologist age 56 and throughout all my live and professional career in nature work this country has gone from defied to defied. Officially we should still have 35.000 km of hedgerows. But I have seen a whole lot of them and I think that we may have as little as 20.000 km of meaningful corridors left, and still loosing some every year. I'll share your video on my Linked-in if that is okay.
Hedging (as in laying) and ditching used to be considered a vital part of the countryside calendar, then along came barbed wire and the hedges are now butchered by tractor flails annually. The ditches are not dug out now and so we have floods.
Some hedges are surviving, damaged remnants of ancient woodland as a result of assart. Woodland plant species as well as hedge plants survive along their line. Not all hedges were produced as a result of enclosure.
I loved this vidoe not just for a look into the project but also for the more technical aspects. It was well presented, edited, sound levels were good, and the shots great. Thank you as always for your content.
honest questions: will hedgerow corridors concentrate wildlife along narrow strips? and if so, won't they become prime hunting grounds for predators? what risk would this pose to the intended aim to allow wildlife to flourish?
I've talked about this at length in the past. A lot of the problem comes down to people not realizing the 2nd Order Effects of the things they support and encourage. We talk about how the farmers were "incentivized" to remove hedgerows, but not how those "incentives" often took the form of increased wage demands from the people who insisted on a "livable wage". Tending hedgerows was always very labor-intensive, so when a worker's union miles away managed to get an extra quid tacked onto the pay at the mill.... how could you fault people for going to work at the mill? And even those who stayed had to increase their wages just to make it seem more rational in their own minds. Taxes and Regulations work in the same way. If you drive up the cost of fuel, you necessarily drive up the cost of everything that requires fuel -- including food on the store shelves because they all require fuel to get there. In the "Times Before", the hedgerows would be filled with Bodgers and Woodwrights who kept the woodlands tidy by harvesting wood for making bowls, troughs, cups, stools, cabinets, ladders, huddles, trugs, and baskets. Every house in the area was filled with the goods made by local craftsmen from local woods. But as the costs were forced up, people opted for the "cheaper" stuff made in a factory. People wanted to keep up with the Jones'. People wanted to feel fancy. The net result of all that, the 2nd Order and 3rd Order Effects, was that the hedgerows were soon left in disrepair. Folks turned their backs on their culture and heritage because they were convinced that the newer was automatically better simply because it was newer. And now we're seeing that this wasn't the case. Of course, we're coming at it from a different angle, talking about wildlife as though people weren't part of the ecosystem. When you teach people how to use the woods around them, and embrace the ways of their people, you see that they immediately see that there's value there that goes beyond a pretty picture. The willows are great for wildlife, for example, but they are also great for the people because we can make wonderful baskets from them instead of relying on the nasty plastics being mass-produced in a factory on the other side of the world. That's true environmentalism. And it creates jobs right there in the area. You don't get a smaller possible "carbon footprint" than that because it cuts out all the transportation, landfill, and other such costs. As soon as your willow hamper is trashed, it can be thrown into the woods to rot in a few months, returning to the soil it once came from.
I've got a pond and clover lawn that stays short, so it's never mowed and it's strewn with twigs and stones providing a frog habitat. You need to reseed clover ever year as they don't produce sufficient seeds of their own to maintain a clover-only lawn. Clover isnt a grass but a pollen plant hence attracts bees.
Connectivity between habitats is absolutely vital. If you divide a species into too many tiny, isolated populations, you can cause it to struggle and die out even if it could have sustained itself with better habitat connectivity. Excessive habitat fragmentation is definitely causing problems for many species. So this is great to see!
Proper maintenance of these hedges is essential, bringing back the traditional craft of hedgelaying and incentivising its use can not only keep these vital habitats alive, but also provide opportunities for added yield, making it both environmentally and financially sustainable. It can also support rural skills and businesses rather than continue the drain to large agro-corps pushing bigger and bigger machinery. Many hedgelayers are creating biochar from the leftovers, a soil improver that can sequester carbon for a very long time. Kindling and firewood was traditionally harvested, alongside building materials, plant supports and seasonal fruits. Having standing trees amongst the hedges increases habitat variation, but can also have an extra yield for the farmer, long term timber crops or even fruit trees, even if the fruit end up as supplement for the livestock!
Blames food production for loss of hedgerows and doesn't mention the insane amount of urban development fuelled mostly by immigration. Most ecologists and conservationists are fighting a losing battle when they keep denying reality and blaming the wrong things.
@@rory5780 Agree, but there's no denying that population increase from this or any other country and of whatever colour, does not have a negative effect on the countryside and its biodiversity.
@@rory5780why are you even bringing up skin color? the native population has a below replacement birth rate (they're not having enough children to even replace themselves), yet the population is growing. Therefore population growth is due to immigration. You don't get to call yourself a conservationist while ignoring overpopulation and promoting more population growth.
The fact is there is still less developed land in the U.K. than that covered by grouse moors .The hedge decline is and was the product of the states drive to “ modernise “ farming ,which they did with both a carrot and stick .The farmers complied or lost their farms . To try and blame it on immigration or population growth is just wrong .
@@andrewtrip8617 Around where I live and nationally in my country I am literally seeing hedgerows and undeveloped land demolished all around me for housing estates. And for each housing estate that means more power generation required, more waste water treatment, water treatment, roads, retail and business space, schools, etc. etc. Yeah great, modernised farming started off the demolition, now urban and suburban development is moving in to take up the spaces where those hedgerows were. You also strawman the argument by claiming I blame 100% of it on immigration. However, immigration makes all existing problems related to population growth worse in every way conceivable. Also intensive farming is now required to sustain a growing global population, despite Western and European birth-rates being below replacement and declining. But keep believing infinity immigration is some how sustainable and not at odds with conservation. You are complicit in the loss habitat and biodiversity.
You're doing amazing work Rob! Keep up the glorious work!!! You are helping The Re-wilding Movement grow worldwide!!! Leave Curious, Mossy Earth, & Planet Wild are still my top 3 favorite Re-wilding Channels!!! Kudos to you all!!! Would love to see videos of Leave Curious and Mossy Earth teaming up on some joint projects with Planet Wild &/or Other Nature Restoration &/or Re-wilding Groups!!! Woo-Hoo! I love what's unfolding around the world with The Re-wilding Movement!!!
Absolutely the way forward, increase the width of them to allow for ponds, as we lose so many to development and misuse, the village were i grew up, was surrounded by small ponds ,full of newts and even fish, most of which are all gone.
A brilliant project, also although I knew hedgerows were important for a lot of wildlife, I never considered the fact that they made corridors to connect woodblocks and other natural habbitats.
Brilliant, brilliant stuff! It's wonderful to see planting going on with cardboard biodegradable tree guards instead of plastic ones too. I wonder what this project will look like in 5-10 years time though. At this time of year, you see tractors out strimming hedges which rips away branches incredibly violently and leaves huge gaps in the hedge and the plants vulnerable to disease - all of which will eventually kill the hedge. A properly "laid" hedge, where someone weaves and cuts the hedge back into itself is not only a better fence for livestock than a wire fence, but it's also a much better habitat for small animals and birds. Hedge laying is much more time consuming and expensive than flailing it though, as always, it's finding the funding for ongoing maintenance that will make or break projects like this.
We need this here in NL asap!! IF the intake/cosumption of Nitrogen is also increasing by a larger network of 'green veins', than the legislation concerning Nitrogen emission can be transformed. It´s better to have a longterm sustainable solution by working together with the agrarian sector rather than invoking legislation that builds on resentment and divsion. Connectivity inbetween farms and distribution centres are by road, Nature needs landstrips and waterways. Great video!!!
i read about this is the book of wilding, a book about rewilding in the UK and other parts of europe! its so great to see some of the ideas referenced here with wildlife corridors and the massive importance of connecting them together so that wildlife can move freely but not become trapped in one place. what a great place to start for making things a little better for wildlife 🐛🍄
We all know that the UK (& many other countries) need more tree cover. The UK's central and regional governments have tree planting schemes as an integral part of farm subsidy payments & to which many farmers object based on how these are framed. I, on the other hand, have long thought the aforementioned schemes could have their conditions adjusted to allow for 'Fenceline Forests'. Instead of your traditionally accepted hedgerows or the more recent percentage of your farm acreage being set aside for tree planting, a 'Fenceline Forest' would be planted along boundary fences, both within the farm & on its perimeter, one or two metres on each side of the fenceline, the trees then being allowed to grow to maturity without being pruned or manipulated in any way in order to maintain their height at a certain level. If planted in this way, farmers would not end up with their land's productive capacity being unduly impinged upon by 10% or so tree planting requirements in order to receive subsidies. It would also help in reducing agricultural runoff, protecting water courses from pollution, and thus aquatic wildlife in addition to fresh water drinking supplies. Soil erosion reduction would follow as would an accompanying reduction in mineral depletion, and in fact, we'd probably eventually see a buildup of essential nutrients in agricultural soils as they're trapped in and around root systems, gently being released back into soil over time, reducing need for artificially applied fertilisers. From a wildlife connectivity perspective, if this approach was widely adopted nationwide, forest cover would be substantially expanded alongside habitat expansion. Millions of trees would end up being planted this way. Boundary fencelines shared with neighbouring properties would mean each farmer would only have responsibility for the planting and maintenance of one (half) of that section of Fenceline Forest.
4:03-4:16 so, the Knepp Estate, but on a far smaller scale, correct? 5:26-5:37 that's exactly what i thought you'd be doing - albeit not by putting the trees in rows (that arrangement gives me artificial vibes, and i don't like it); not planting hedge rows.
Great video Rob. Many of the hedgerows in my area are packed with indicators of ancient woodland such as bluebells and other species of wildflower. It’s said that if you count the number of species of tree and shrub in a 30 metre stretch of hedgerow, it’s a guide to how old the wood is in centuries. One hedge only a few miles from here is known to be at least 1,100 years old, from mentions in Saxon estate documents.
Oh wow thats cool - I actually went to see an old hedge for this video, but I later found out... I filmed and talked about the wrong hedge, so I decided to cut it out!!
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
In denmark they estimate that every farmer has about 5% of their land that they could give back to rewild. Often where crops flood.. which is perfect for wild nature.
So many fields flood here in SW England, so it makes a lot of sense to rewild them.
The U.K. has the 2nd lowest forest cover in Europe, 13% vs France 29%, Germany 32% and Poland 33%. Hedges act as a poor replacement for wild woods so they give wildlife a home away from intensively managed farmland.
It is worth mentoning, especially to farmers, that hedgerows and wildlife corriders provide high value pest control services. Predators like birds, weasels, spiders, hoverflies, ladybirds, lacewings, beetles and many more need the refuges of the hedgerow to survive winter and be ready to eat all the pests as soon as the season starts. They also harbour pollinators for the crops that need them, like flax, peas, seed crops, soft fruit, tree fruit, all benefit from native bees, nutterflies, flies, etc.
This is a great point!!!
So do areas of trees/ copses and scrub land and meadow. The problem with hedgerows is that they often do not work for their primary purpose which is to contain livestock (they weren't meant to be primarily wildlife havens ) and they need to be trimmed every year which is time and expense to the farmer.
Not to mention the carbon capture potential.
@Dirpitz Many hedges were never even laid properly in the first place and even if they were they need o be relaid over time as their effectiveness in containing livestock diminishes. Of the 250 acres our farm has I would say that only 20 acres of our land is bordered by effective hedges. Re laying hedges is a long slow and expensive job and their just aren't enough people to do the jobs. Sure they might work once they have been relaid properly but again thats expensive and time consuming, if there were government grants and people willing to do the work I would happily relay all my hedges on the farm but as it is its easier to fence fields and just leave areas of land wild that are no good for agriculture for wildlife.
@Dirpitz Also car traffic does not effectively trim road hedges at all in the countryside and if left untrimmed people would start moaning about poor visibility and their cars getting scratched I guarantee it.
I'm an HGV driver and travel all over the South East, East anglia and East Midlands. It is very depressing to see the decline in the hedgerows. Many are being left to die out, some have only a few field trees to show where the hedge used to be. It's not a surprise we have lost half of our farmland birds.
I was driving in England for couple of months 2 years ago(also HGV). And it was actually good to see from my perspective that they existed. I am from Poland, where you dont see them pretty much at all. And there you could go and stroll, pick up blackberries. They were between the fields were you could go freely without anyone bothering you are telling you that its their property. Its sad that it is not more widespread across the world and they are in decline in England.
I'm a lorryest and my patch is mainly Dorset, miles and miles of hedgerow, but poorly maintained because the old skills have been forgotten. It also urks me because its all resource, its mainly Hazel, was used for thousands of years but replaced with metal and plastic. I've recently got right in to hedge laying, so I think I'm going to join a group and get out there.
Well done, I was reading an article that said we have lost 118,000 miles of hedgerow in the last 50 years! And what is left is not in great shape, it also said we have lost 90 million field birds.
I'm from North Notts and its depressing seeing the amount of litter by the roadside hedgerows.
@@benjaminwilley3578 same here in the south, Theres a whole fridge in one of my local hedgerows. and this hedge row is quite wide and a deep basin shape and usually half the year is a wetland floodplane swamp pond like habitat, if a hedgerow isnt already important, the fact its also a mini wetland habitat makes it even more important in our sea of fields and concrete, and heres litter from your normal beverage cans all the way to whole kitchen appliances. looovvee fly tippers...
"The green veins of the countryside" - lovely that!
Poetic is Jack!
As a farmer I love this
In Ireland you can (could?) get EU grants for moving your fences back a bit and rewilding the gaps. Many have because it's a great excuse to have your new fencing and time spent doing it paid for. You should of had it pre 2016...
This is litterally my job: inventorise hedgerows, replant existing ones or create new ones and coppice the ones that are growing old. In Belgium, a lot of focus is being put on hedgerows the last couple of years. So glad it's starting in Britain as well because you have a lot more of them then we do!
Love this.
How did you get into the work?
@@jeneral-jeff8402 It's one of the fields of expertise of an employer called Regional Landscape. We try to be the bridge between farmers, culture, landscape, tourism, nature and history.
@@elegastboomverzorging810 sounds beautiful. I’ll look into them
I love this channel and green corridors are so vital, it's lovely to see their importance shown.
Thanks very much :) and yeah for sure. Can't wait for spring and summer to see them thrive.
My municipal government (~170,000 people) in the Netherlands has identified all green areas, and divided them into different tiers of nature. Most of them are parks, of course. They're making plans to connect those areas. For this, they are asking people to help by replacing tiles in their gardens with soil and plants, and use fences instead of walls for their gardens. This all to create wildlife corridors in the city. I'm so excited for this project, bringing nature back into the concrete jungle. Seeing the project in this video really is great, as it shows there are many people who try to find ways to improve biodiversity.
Which municipality?
Sounds really forward thinking, where exactly is this?
@@LeaveCurious Nijmegen, near the border with Germany. It's not that close to the Randstad, so it still has quite a bit of nature around.
Yay! Amazing!
Hej Timmie kun je de betrokken organisaties enz noemen? Ik wil hieraan kunnen meehelpen!
I remember working on a farm in the midlands, we knew the farmer very well and he had just bought it (he had a huge potato farm in Yorkshire too). He ripped up all the hedgerows like he had done in Yorkshire. He was a disgrace and needless to say we walked off the job in disgust. It’s amazing and heartwarming these young people are restoring such treasures!
thats disappointing, you made the right choice leaving in my book.
It is hard for people to see the behind the scenes benefits I think. The benefit to more farming land is clear. The benefit to more hedgerows is less immediately clear. Sad really.
@@CamimalFPVThen the government should incentivise recovery of hedgerows for farmers. Improved education and communication on their benefits would be great as well.
Well farmers are always claiming to be so informed about the land, and how they are caretakers. I realise I am likely conflating good farmers with bad farmers and I apologise for that, but the country has been deforested for mass amounts of grazing fields... farmers dgaf about nature from the looks of it (many of them anyways, with most of the land) @@31Blaize
I feel like so much of rewilding efforts are these small, unsexy projects. You have to start from the very bottom, supporting the soil and the bugs, in order to support the birds and then larger wildlife. I've seen a difference in my own yard since planting more native shrubs and perennials. And I'm excited to keep planting. We can create wildlife corridors in our own yards. Thank you for highlighting this project!
yeah you're exactly right, in the UK were everything is so cut up, multiple land uses its all about doing what you can where you can!
We started a vegetable plot in our garden and also have some fruit trees. After a long process of learning we leave some spots more or less in peace, we created a shelter for wild bees...
This years the wild bees who live in our own garden were busy polinating the fruit trees right at the start of spring.
The ladybugs are waking up.
It's amazing how nature wants to help, when we help it.
When I was a child hedges were fascinating for foraging berries, watching wildlife and generally getting stuck in when trying to escape after scrumping apples or sweetcorn!
They are vital for birds and wildlife
Yes in a garden they need a bit of maintenance but are so much better than plain fences and AstroTurf
Yes I've spent a good while retrieving footballs out of blackthorn only to find they've popped!
Yes! I've been trying to hype up wildlife corridors for 15 years. I designed an urban/suburban model where wildlife could move through a metropolis without ever setting foot on a road.
I'm intrested in how thats possible, could u share a bit of info
Kind of like this hedgerow idea. Design corridors through cities, intercity, etc. linking ever larger tracts in a grid. We already do it when there's a river for example, just use fences, bridges, etc. It is easier/cheaper and more grand if people would build new communities with it in mind, but I've looked at places like San Francisco for example and found with just a few relatively small links, there could be a green belt across the entire city. Nature bridges are just starting to be popular, bridging nature spaces over highways, this would be the same in reverse, bridge the roads over the green belts.
The overall effects would be animals could move freely across a whole region, state, etc. migrate without crossing roads, a cougar could move from Santa Clara to Berkeley without having to walk through city streets (which they have been doing now for a number of years). This would also provide an increased bioload, increasing diversity and population, providing spaces for smaller animals to populate that would make larger animal populations more stable. It wouldn't matter how big a metro area was. A pack of wolves could walk by skyscrapers and be on the other side of a city without ever interacting with people. @@sokodont
I love the work these passionate young people are doing! It deserves to be celebrated. Bravo!
it certainly does, cheers!
It would be good to make it intergenerational ❤
Brilliant. This is such a simple way of improving our green environment. Bravo.
I was taught at School the importance of Hedgerows. Now 60 plus it stuck with me.
I was alarmed by a bustle in my hedgerow but fortunately it just turned out to be a spring clean for the May queen.
A very important topic. Little is still said about the fragmentation of environments. About 30% of butterfly species in Europe live in isolated habitats. Many of them do not exceed a few hectares in area. Even the slightest change in such an environment can cause them to be lost. Thanks for bringing up an important topic.
We’re starting to improve the hedgerows on the farm here after being neglected for years
Can’t wait to see them change
I'm still in the South of England Hedgelaying society. There's too many gappy hedges that need a tidy up. When they're a row of trees that won't do much of anything for wildlife.
It's amusing that at the time of the 'enclosures' people were writing letters complaining about the awful hedgerows and the way that they blocked the views of the then open countryside... how times change. 🙄
Have a look at how hedges used to be maintained, they were a thing of beauty, a well played hedge is so multifunctional, not like the spindly, gappy, over grown, useless boundaries they are now.
@@terryteed1903 Yep, I lay some of my hedges myself, but it is a very labour intensive job, looks good, works pretty well, but a lot of effort. And it was only done every decade or so - the wood being a crop, just trimming was an annual thing. 👍
The problem with the enclosures act was that is denied people access to land they used to be able to freely walk (something that still affects England an Wales today). So it wasn't so much hedgerows per se, just they were now solid bounderies. Were they fences the same complaints would have been made.
But many hedgerows predate the enclosures act as well.
This was drummed into us 30 years ago at Writtle College.
Have you ever been to the Netherlands? When I was in the UK I was amazed how beautiful your farmlands looks! In Holland for example we don't have any of this! They are extremly big field next to each and we don't have any planted corridors (headge rows) between them, at least it is extremly rare.
I've seen the fields and lack of hedgerows flying into Netherlands yes!
That's also common in Spain, I figure it happened due to the development of bigger monopolised fields with one owner instead of the traditional small fields divided by hedges
Come to western Slovakia. There are the biggest monocultural fields in whole Europe. Communists wanted to implement new easier seeding techniques so they destroyed many of the hedgerows. I have been to the Netherlands several times and your fields arent that big as in western Slovakia :)))
In southern Limburg the landscape looks similar to the one in the video and there are still hedgerows dividing fields. Like in the UK they have been disappearing though. Luckily there are some projects aiming to restore these hedgerows and other traditional landscape elements like "graften". This is both beneficial for the ecology and a good method to limit issues with water runoff in the hills so it's really a win-win.
This greatly depends on what part of the Netherlands
The idea of the year! Really underrated yet simple and useful
One thing that England seems to do better at than Scotland from an ecological perspective is hedgerows. I’ve been left impressed with the amount of hedgerows to be seen during the few times I’ve ventured to the English countryside. We seem to lack hedgerows here, with land being divided with fencing alone. I think the implementation and maintenance of hedgerows should be made mandatory, they are incredibly important habitats and as you show in the video - vital highways connecting different woodlands together.
Yeah, Scotlands lacks the hedge for sure, but overall its less busy.
@@LeaveCuriousGreat Video!
While largely true, this varies across our farming systems - I would guess Ayrshire still has a better hedgerow infrastucture than Lincolnshire. But in Scotland we never had the same hedgerow maintenance culture that England had. Look into most English hedges and you will see evidence of historic hedge-laying practices. It would be extremely rare to be able to find anything of that sort in Scotland. In part this is down to speed of growth and length of season for hedgerow species, but it is also down to the timing of farm enclosure relative to industrial expansion and the distances from industrial employment. Historically, hedgerow maintenance was very labour intensive and by the time that Scottish hedgerows reached the age where this was needed, the labour resource was simply no longer available on our farms to do the job properly.
England is fairly unique globally the huge amount of hedgerows it has
I really loved this video and without the drone footage I wouldn’t have been able to visualize what you meant about the importance of connecting the woodlands with corridors. Fantastic video Rob!! Thank you 🙏🏻 and well done!! You look 👀 bright 💛 happy 😁 and merry 🌿!! Cheers!!
Ah thank you very much, yes drones are essentially to visualising anything relating to the landscape!!!
Better than those ''stop oil'' people on the street, bothering everyone.
I wish these projects were here in the Netherlands too, or even better... rather world wide.
Just Stop Oil have some dodgy funding sources.
True, very true. There's some shady things going on in the top @@suburbanyobbo9412
Good for u guys…. I flew over northern mid-Britain in 2005 and 2008 and could see the lack of hedge rows in that part of the country. It was all farms and my aerial view showed them leaking huge quantities of top soil into the rivers, very tragic for farmers and the environment. Hedge rows especially along rivers increase biodiversity as mentioned, stop soil erosion, beneficial insects, wildlife corridors, river and water health, and improve farmers yields through soil conservation, I’m sure you know, cheers🌹
I'v litterly just yesterday, ordered wild flower seeds to plant along all the hedge rows on my way to work...for this very reason 😂
love it - great idea!
Make sure it is native plants! 👍
Oh absolutly, don't you worry ✌️😁
I've left an area of my lawn u mowed this year and planted wild flower seed but there are only daisys and dandelions. Even in patches I dug over... 😕
It’s honestly very relieving that there are so many other people that actually care so much about nature and giving it it’s place. Keep doing the great work you guys are doing and anyone else that does just 1 small thing creates a massive help throughout the world
You just made me think of the way I ride my bike to work. An open field - with a bicycle path. But not even trees or hedges planted along the way .
just bushes on that part would be great - and now I need to suggest it.
When I was a boy there were hedges, copses and small strips of u farmed land everywhere, eventually they were ripped out chopped down and ploughed up as the por farmers were pushed to produce more and more, it will be lovely to see them return
I live on my family farm and take pleasure in making our hedges and woodland as wildlife friendly as possible. Far too many farmers get somebody unqualified to hack away at hedges to save a bit of time and money without realising it'll cost them in other ways. Not just that, but it's also upsetting to see ancient hedges ripped out for housing developments too. I'm delighted to see more hedges and woodlands being planted in this country.
Yes, hedges are amazing and not that common in many other countries. I remember all the hawthorn hedges that flourished in the north of England when I was a little girl. In fact in those days, the Lancashire County Council used to plant them alongside new roads, protected by a fence until they were established. I doubt that happens any more. When they grew large enough, they were 'laid' by skllled people to provide a stock-proof fence. Every decade or so, they would be laid once again to keep the growth thick and tangled. Nowadays, too many of them are cut with slashers and are no longer stockproof - or dense thickets were small animals can be safe and small plants can grow. Replacing ancient skills with machinery, is just another casualty of our over-exploitation of Nature's generosity.
Skilled men.
Modern hedge planters always seem to plant them on flat ground. Look at old hedges, they are almost always ontop of a earthen bank. Makes a much healthier, longerlasting hedge that is much much better for keep stock in where you want it. Although hedgerows of anysort are wonderful. I planted 30m this winter on my smallholding, 10 different species, and next year I will be plants 100m of mixed species, and 2 x 100m rows of hazel to be in a coppice. Coppices are very important, they have been mostly wiped out though, you need them for hedgelaying. Loose old hedges are great in their own ways, but many species rely on tightly woven thick layed hedges. Love what you do, keep up the good work
Very true, that's why we need to reduce consumption, food mileage, exports and imports, economic growth that destroys the environment.
Wonderful to have met you during the hedge planting Rob and love the video! Those drone shots really help contextualise the progress that was made
I always find a shame seeing how much farmland is used for livestock, acres and acres serving a mere few dozen sheep that could be filled with crops instead. I wonder if this is because meat is more valuable as I'm pretty sure that a crop field can produce more calories per acre per year.
👁️ "SAVE SOIL" 🌱 Sadhguru@
You are thinking about it the wrong way .sheep and grass are net fertility builders their by product is wool and meat .crops are net fertility consumers and require imported fertility .whats more research has demonstrated that pastureland and meadows are diverse species rich ecosystems both above and below the surface ,while crop lands unless rotated and organic are both depleted and imbalanced .
This should be national Policy!!
In Nature
I love being in nature because in nature there is no separation. Yes, there are still barriers - wide, raging rapids; sheer, towering cliffs; jagged mountain peaks - but there are no artificial boundaries, no borders to break the world into pieces where there would otherwise be a vast, expansive oneness.
Most boundaries in nature are blended, seamless transitions from one place to the next; a seaweed-strewn, tide-washed beach where land gives way to the sea; an ancient mountain forest gradually thinning out to a few bowed, stunted trees. Rarely is change abrupt and jarring, split by a straight line as though brutally severed from the environment around it.
Unlike man-made spaces, which force a rigid, crude form of order upon anything that does not conform to our convenience, through innumerable incremental adjustments (and the occasional cataclysmic shift) nature has found balance, and settled independently into a state of stable, finely-honed equilibrium. Take a step back and you see that nature is not necessarily wild because it is unruly, capricious and chaotic, but because it is untamed by rules that refuse to cooperate with the spontaneous, unregulated rhythms that already govern it.
We are obsessed with portioning the world out into manageable segments, bulldozing through ancient landscapes instead of diverting around them, building fences around things - both literally and figuratively - in an attempt to own and control what is contained within. We enforce invented laws and impose arbitrary limits. Walls and rules that shouldn't exist stifle, constrain and constrict, blocking the invisible currents that carry forward so many drifting spirits, and all I want to do is smash straight through them in a steady, steerless course towards the horizon and beyond it.
Admittedly, certain rules and boundaries must be set in order to prevent injustice, but only because we still haven't learnt to stay our own selfish, greedy, apathetic impulses, because we are still unwilling to admit that there is no inevitability to conflict, and because we have forgotten how to exist in harmony with the land upon which we live.
Unlike the human world, where I feel in constant competition with others for my place in it, wherever I find myself in nature is exactly where I belong. Without the juxtaposition between who I am and who I am expected to be, between how the world is and how it should flow unobstructed around me, I am free.
I become a wandering awareness no longer at odds with the world. My bodily boundaries blurr outwards until they've dissolved completely, and I cannot tell the difference between where I end and everything else begins.
In nature I can dip my toes in a stream and feel the pull of the sea.
I've often thought we should be applying this principle in urban development too. Connect every green space in urban areas with narrow undeveloped corridors that can be left to nature. Impossible to do consistently with roads in the way but I get the feeling new housing developments could do a lot more, as it's practically nonexistent currently.
if we ever get to a place where cars are less common many roads could be closed and returned to nature.
I was born and raised in the Uk in Scotland and in Sussex in England. I emigrated to Australia 40 yrs ago and it’s sad to hear these hedge rows have diminished. This is a wonderful initiative and l love hearing young people be so enthusiastic about nature. I’ve subscribed to your channel 👍
Great insight by Jack from Young Wilders, its the 'little' things that make the practical difference. Love the idea and planning behind the planting of the corridor. Be nice to hear more about that. Great video, hope this concept gets rolled out beyond Essex
Such a great action, and I love name "big green internet web " 😊
*"The rolling valleys and the pastures of the highlands of the British isles could be considered as natural, but they aren't. These spaces were formerly covered with trees, but humans and pasture animals have cleared them in some millenniums, and by the action of livestock they became meadows of different types, according to the soil constitution and the underlying bedrock. Meadows survive as long as shepherding continues : If it ceases, the process of succession resumes. Then weeds and other herbs sprout, and the little trees acclimate. Slopes are quickly dotted with hawthorns and other bushes and, finally, the forest is settled...many high moors are burnt frequently to foment the growth of new heath to the grouse's benefit : without these fires, the land would become a forest once again."*
This is an extract from a nature's book by an english author named Michael Chinery from 1979. The book I own is in spanish ('cos I am an spaniard) so I translated it to english.This is why it may not be a very good translation but a good attempt.
Here in North Herts there has been much hedge planting and planting up of awkward to cultivate.
a hedgerow helps provide fragmented and disrupted habitat if anything. Would be much better if the UK just rewilded all those vast tracks of empty grass between the hedgerows.
Even my friends who are not interested in nature comment on the lack of insects stuck to the front of their cars. I've read articles that we have lost a third of our flying insects due to pesticides and habitat destruction.
We also have aerodynamic vehicles that no longer collect dead insects .
It's so great to see how your channel has grown! When I joined you had less than a thousand followers and look at you now. It's rare for me to watch all of the videos from any subscriber but you and Mossy Earth always seem to pull it off.
So how can we create a model that doesn't require people who don't own the land to get involved? How can we set it up so that farmers are incentivized to do this themselves on their own land? A way that they can make money no matter if the government is involved or not.
The landscape view is very similar to norfolk. We have lots of trees, hedges and water holes but they are spread out and disconnected between enormous fields! Love this reconnection of the lanscape!
I usually post big long blathers, but I'll keep it simple for this one. Your channel gives me hope. Sincerely, thank you.
haha thank you. blathers always welcome.
Well, since you mentioned it... Do you know if there's any such youth / whoever rewilding and environmental groups around up north? Specifically Lancashire, Derbyshire, Cheshire kind of way? 'Cos if there isn't, I feel a burning need to try and organise one. (Do or do not, there is no try.) Thanks, you're the bestestest.
The EU paying farmers to destroy hedgerows in the UK was a disgrace
It started with a push to produce more food following scarcity of the Second World War.long before the Eu was invented .There was no going against the ministry of agriculture in those days .!
That’s Progressivist Deep State for you. Britain’s had it now for 119 years.
look into landscape ecology, specifically fragmentation, wildlife corridors are only a plaster for ecology. They do not create an edge effect. Rewilding needs to be done on a bigger scale, and one of the components to achieve this is precision fermentation.
Precision fermentation is an idea not a component .
@@andrewtrip8617 component -a part that combines with othe r parts to form something bigger. I hope this does not come a cross as patronizing I just don't understand what you mean.
0:30 this 'dissection' refers to the Enclosure/Inclosure Movement in England which was virtually complete by 1850
Anything to help the wilderness of this country is welcome as far as I'm concerned 😊
I think the last article I read on the loss of hedgerows was in the Guardian but have seen similar figures before but I can never know there accuracy. With regard to management of surviving hedgerows I agree just from my own experiences driving around the South East. The height of an hgv gives me great views across the fields.
Interesting project, thanks for bringing it to our attention
Another big problem is the over cutting of the green verges . This removes the wildflowers that cannot grow in pastoral or arable land .
Very hopeful and uplifting. A welcome antidote to the angry welsh farmers. Thank you.
Amazing as usual! One of, if not the most important initiative you've covered yet!
The real truth is the whole Europe needs to green a lot, much much a lot what they have been doing. They love to complain about countries in developments, but close their eyes about themselves.
Actually, Europe has been the leader in "greening" for generations. Even around the world, it's Europeans who are funding the movements. All of the biggest polluters in the world are non-European nations. Only Europe has the history of preservation and conservation. Not India, not Zimbabwe, not Peru or China or Pakistan.
@@threeriversforge1997 we export our emissions to those countries and act surprised when they turn natural landscape into industry. your comment lacks that context
@@threeriversforge1997 - Really? Why is that? Isn't it because they can't compete the prices of the food that are being grown in other countries and then stopped producing them? So, that just makes Europeans fakes complaining and complaining when they are among the most consumers of goods, traveling to everywhere, having nice wood furniture, expensive clothes in the world. I wanted to see this "transformation" happening in Europe if they needed to produce all things they consume.
Have a nice day, you hypocritic.
@@MrOlympuse410According to nasa data the increased greening of the planet is down to increased co2 concentrations in the atmosphere .as nice as hedges are they will never come close to the benefits of co2 .
Thank you for this one. I've always hoped that linking the wild areas of the country would become a reality so to see it happening is amazing 😊.
We need this in Ecuador. There are so many misunderstandings and prejudices about leaving or building natural corridors between each piece of land, such as that when the shrubs or trees grow, they will provide a lot of shade and affect the crops, or that it has no positive effect; or it attracts animals and they will eat the crops, etc. When it's the opposite. Erosion is prevented, soils are kept motter, there is greater fertilization, and so on...
Excellent.
Most hedges around here are flailed to death around here in Cornwall by farmers that there anything left for animals or birds to feed on in winter, once it was common to hedges full of winter berries and wild bird now they are barren and devoid of life.
I love your enthusiasm for rewilding in all it's variations :)
It was I'm here to do :)
Growing the Future.
Great video. Bring hedgerows back! It’s great that you are showcasing this group’s efforts and hopefully it will inspire others.
For sure :) easy and simple enough to get some hedges in!
This is such a fascinating and informative channel. I'm glad to have found it. Keep up the good work 👍
Fantastic video and thank you
Hedgerows my life long worry watching their Demise and along with it less wild life
This is fantastic news and great to see something is being done thanks for keeping us posted
Thumbs up 👍🏼
So how are the hedges in Normandy, also known as brocage, doing?
The UK used to have so many more hedgerows before fzrmers were forced to enlarge their fields to maximise production. Many of which were defined by hedgerows. So many also had ponds. Initially they were used to provide water for livestock but in time water troughs were provided and the ponds were left for wildlife. Back to the future I guess, although the burgeoning suburban sprawl will present challenges. Wildlife bridges across busy roads & motorways can also play their part.
Thanks!
Love this channel. In Denmark most of our countryside is ripped of hedgerows. Within the past 10 years it has gone from worse to appalling with lack of decision-making, lack of notice and a legal hunt for all possible firewood to throw into power plants as "green" renewable energy. If you like me live in the countryside of rural Denmark where fields of more than 1 square km is growing in numbers and seem to be the dream of all remaining farmers, it is so depressing to look at. I'm a biologist age 56 and throughout all my live and professional career in nature work this country has gone from defied to defied. Officially we should still have 35.000 km of hedgerows. But I have seen a whole lot of them and I think that we may have as little as 20.000 km of meaningful corridors left, and still loosing some every year. I'll share your video on my Linked-in if that is okay.
Please do share it. The situation does sound a bit dire, small local efforts can still make a difference so do what you can. Good luck!
Hedging (as in laying) and ditching used to be considered a vital part of the countryside calendar, then along came barbed wire and the hedges are now butchered by tractor flails annually. The ditches are not dug out now and so we have floods.
Some hedges are surviving, damaged remnants of ancient woodland as a result of assart. Woodland plant species as well as hedge plants survive along their line. Not all hedges were produced as a result of enclosure.
God bless Mike and other like him who are restoring the balance to our country side.
Really impressed with Jack's passion and ability to communicate the importance of the issue
Yeah hes brilliant, told him to make a youngwilder youtube channel!
Shared to both Facebook and Twitter; thanks for posting!
I loved this vidoe not just for a look into the project but also for the more technical aspects. It was well presented, edited, sound levels were good, and the shots great. Thank you as always for your content.
honest questions: will hedgerow corridors concentrate wildlife along narrow strips? and if so, won't they become prime hunting grounds for predators? what risk would this pose to the intended aim to allow wildlife to flourish?
Wildlife is made up of predators ,you can’t have one without the other .
I've talked about this at length in the past. A lot of the problem comes down to people not realizing the 2nd Order Effects of the things they support and encourage. We talk about how the farmers were "incentivized" to remove hedgerows, but not how those "incentives" often took the form of increased wage demands from the people who insisted on a "livable wage". Tending hedgerows was always very labor-intensive, so when a worker's union miles away managed to get an extra quid tacked onto the pay at the mill.... how could you fault people for going to work at the mill? And even those who stayed had to increase their wages just to make it seem more rational in their own minds. Taxes and Regulations work in the same way. If you drive up the cost of fuel, you necessarily drive up the cost of everything that requires fuel -- including food on the store shelves because they all require fuel to get there.
In the "Times Before", the hedgerows would be filled with Bodgers and Woodwrights who kept the woodlands tidy by harvesting wood for making bowls, troughs, cups, stools, cabinets, ladders, huddles, trugs, and baskets. Every house in the area was filled with the goods made by local craftsmen from local woods. But as the costs were forced up, people opted for the "cheaper" stuff made in a factory. People wanted to keep up with the Jones'. People wanted to feel fancy.
The net result of all that, the 2nd Order and 3rd Order Effects, was that the hedgerows were soon left in disrepair. Folks turned their backs on their culture and heritage because they were convinced that the newer was automatically better simply because it was newer. And now we're seeing that this wasn't the case.
Of course, we're coming at it from a different angle, talking about wildlife as though people weren't part of the ecosystem. When you teach people how to use the woods around them, and embrace the ways of their people, you see that they immediately see that there's value there that goes beyond a pretty picture. The willows are great for wildlife, for example, but they are also great for the people because we can make wonderful baskets from them instead of relying on the nasty plastics being mass-produced in a factory on the other side of the world. That's true environmentalism. And it creates jobs right there in the area. You don't get a smaller possible "carbon footprint" than that because it cuts out all the transportation, landfill, and other such costs. As soon as your willow hamper is trashed, it can be thrown into the woods to rot in a few months, returning to the soil it once came from.
I've got a pond and clover lawn that stays short, so it's never mowed and it's strewn with twigs and stones providing a frog habitat. You need to reseed clover ever year as they don't produce sufficient seeds of their own to maintain a clover-only lawn. Clover isnt a grass but a pollen plant hence attracts bees.
they all need to much wider and variety food planted up.
Connectivity between habitats is absolutely vital. If you divide a species into too many tiny, isolated populations, you can cause it to struggle and die out even if it could have sustained itself with better habitat connectivity. Excessive habitat fragmentation is definitely causing problems for many species. So this is great to see!
Proper maintenance of these hedges is essential, bringing back the traditional craft of hedgelaying and incentivising its use can not only keep these vital habitats alive, but also provide opportunities for added yield, making it both environmentally and financially sustainable. It can also support rural skills and businesses rather than continue the drain to large agro-corps pushing bigger and bigger machinery. Many hedgelayers are creating biochar from the leftovers, a soil improver that can sequester carbon for a very long time. Kindling and firewood was traditionally harvested, alongside building materials, plant supports and seasonal fruits. Having standing trees amongst the hedges increases habitat variation, but can also have an extra yield for the farmer, long term timber crops or even fruit trees, even if the fruit end up as supplement for the livestock!
Blames food production for loss of hedgerows and doesn't mention the insane amount of urban development fuelled mostly by immigration. Most ecologists and conservationists are fighting a losing battle when they keep denying reality and blaming the wrong things.
People take up the same amount of space no matter if they are white or brown
@@rory5780 Agree, but there's no denying that population increase from this or any other country and of whatever colour, does not have a negative effect on the countryside and its biodiversity.
@@rory5780why are you even bringing up skin color? the native population has a below replacement birth rate (they're not having enough children to even replace themselves), yet the population is growing. Therefore population growth is due to immigration. You don't get to call yourself a conservationist while ignoring overpopulation and promoting more population growth.
The fact is there is still less developed land in the U.K. than that covered by grouse moors .The hedge decline is and was the product of the states drive to “ modernise “ farming ,which they did with both a carrot and stick .The farmers complied or lost their farms . To try and blame it on immigration or population growth is just wrong .
@@andrewtrip8617 Around where I live and nationally in my country I am literally seeing hedgerows and undeveloped land demolished all around me for housing estates. And for each housing estate that means more power generation required, more waste water treatment, water treatment, roads, retail and business space, schools, etc. etc.
Yeah great, modernised farming started off the demolition, now urban and suburban development is moving in to take up the spaces where those hedgerows were.
You also strawman the argument by claiming I blame 100% of it on immigration. However, immigration makes all existing problems related to population growth worse in every way conceivable.
Also intensive farming is now required to sustain a growing global population, despite Western and European birth-rates being below replacement and declining.
But keep believing infinity immigration is some how sustainable and not at odds with conservation. You are complicit in the loss habitat and biodiversity.
You're doing amazing work Rob! Keep up the glorious work!!! You are helping The Re-wilding Movement grow worldwide!!! Leave Curious, Mossy Earth, & Planet Wild are still my top 3 favorite Re-wilding Channels!!! Kudos to you all!!! Would love to see videos of Leave Curious and Mossy Earth teaming up on some joint projects with Planet Wild &/or Other Nature Restoration &/or Re-wilding Groups!!! Woo-Hoo! I love what's unfolding around the world with The Re-wilding Movement!!!
Absolutely the way forward, increase the width of them to allow for ponds, as we lose so many to development and misuse, the village were i grew up, was surrounded by small ponds ,full of newts and even fish, most of which are all gone.
Just discovered your channel and I love it. Keep it up!
Cheers from Antwerp, Belgium
What a simple solution. Great video, mate!
Do what you can where you can, thank you Matt
A brilliant project, also although I knew hedgerows were important for a lot of wildlife, I never considered the fact that they made corridors to connect woodblocks and other natural habbitats.
Brilliant, brilliant stuff! It's wonderful to see planting going on with cardboard biodegradable tree guards instead of plastic ones too. I wonder what this project will look like in 5-10 years time though. At this time of year, you see tractors out strimming hedges which rips away branches incredibly violently and leaves huge gaps in the hedge and the plants vulnerable to disease - all of which will eventually kill the hedge. A properly "laid" hedge, where someone weaves and cuts the hedge back into itself is not only a better fence for livestock than a wire fence, but it's also a much better habitat for small animals and birds. Hedge laying is much more time consuming and expensive than flailing it though, as always, it's finding the funding for ongoing maintenance that will make or break projects like this.
We need this here in NL asap!! IF the intake/cosumption of Nitrogen is also increasing by a larger network of 'green veins', than the legislation concerning Nitrogen emission can be transformed. It´s better to have a longterm sustainable solution by working together with the agrarian sector rather than invoking legislation that builds on resentment and divsion. Connectivity inbetween farms and distribution centres are by road, Nature needs landstrips and waterways. Great video!!!
Awesome video! This is such an important topic!
Thank you!!
i read about this is the book of wilding, a book about rewilding in the UK and other parts of europe! its so great to see some of the ideas referenced here with wildlife corridors and the massive importance of connecting them together so that wildlife can move freely but not become trapped in one place. what a great place to start for making things a little better for wildlife 🐛🍄
We all know that the UK (& many other countries) need more tree cover. The UK's central and regional governments have tree planting schemes as an integral part of farm subsidy payments & to which many farmers object based on how these are framed. I, on the other hand, have long thought the aforementioned schemes could have their conditions adjusted to allow for 'Fenceline Forests'. Instead of your traditionally accepted hedgerows or the more recent percentage of your farm acreage being set aside for tree planting, a 'Fenceline Forest' would be planted along boundary fences, both within the farm & on its perimeter, one or two metres on each side of the fenceline, the trees then being allowed to grow to maturity without being pruned or manipulated in any way in order to maintain their height at a certain level. If planted in this way, farmers would not end up with their land's productive capacity being unduly impinged upon by 10% or so tree planting requirements in order to receive subsidies. It would also help in reducing agricultural runoff, protecting water courses from pollution, and thus aquatic wildlife in addition to fresh water drinking supplies. Soil erosion reduction would follow as would an accompanying reduction in mineral depletion, and in fact, we'd probably eventually see a buildup of essential nutrients in agricultural soils as they're trapped in and around root systems, gently being released back into soil over time, reducing need for artificially applied fertilisers. From a wildlife connectivity perspective, if this approach was widely adopted nationwide, forest cover would be substantially expanded alongside habitat expansion. Millions of trees would end up being planted this way. Boundary fencelines shared with neighbouring properties would mean each farmer would only have responsibility for the planting and maintenance of one (half) of that section of Fenceline Forest.
4:03-4:16 so, the Knepp Estate, but on a far smaller scale, correct?
5:26-5:37 that's exactly what i thought you'd be doing - albeit not by putting the trees in rows (that arrangement gives me artificial vibes, and i don't like it); not planting hedge rows.
Great video Rob. Many of the hedgerows in my area are packed with indicators of ancient woodland such as bluebells and other species of wildflower. It’s said that if you count the number of species of tree and shrub in a 30 metre stretch of hedgerow, it’s a guide to how old the wood is in centuries. One hedge only a few miles from here is known to be at least 1,100 years old, from mentions in Saxon estate documents.
Oh wow thats cool - I actually went to see an old hedge for this video, but I later found out... I filmed and talked about the wrong hedge, so I decided to cut it out!!
I really love this type of wildlife corridors! 💚