Environment News Service: European Union Spares UK's Beloved Hedgerows

Wed Nov 22 08:01:58 PST 2000

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-21-10.html

Environment

European Union Spares UK's Beloved Hedgerows

BRUSSELS, Belgium, November 21, 2000 (ENS) - The humble hedgerow that once 
defined Britain's landscape has been saved from widespread destruction 
thanks to an exemption granted under European law.

The United Kingdom's hedgerows date back to the Bronze Age. (Photo courtesy 
National Trust)

Hedgerows are one of the last tangible links with the country's ancient 
past. Bronze Age farmers began separating their livestock with hedgerows 
5,000 years ago, dividing the countryside into a patchwork quilt.

But aside from their esthetic value, hedgerows are vital habitat for more 
than 60 bird species. Whitethroats and blackcaps migrate from Africa to 
nest and feed in the hedges during summer to be replaced by redwings from 
Scandinavia in winter. Hedgehogs, moles, shrews, badgers and weasels all 
make hedgerows home, and bats dine out on the hundreds of invertebrate 
species.

Fifty years ago, the United Kingdom's hedgerows stretched for 800,000 
kilometers, (500,000 miles). After years of neglect and modern agricultural 
practices, culminating in a government subsidy that actually paid farmers 
to rip out hedges, less than half that length remains today.

Farmland birds suffered as a consequence, particularly grey partridges, 
song thrushes, linnets, bullfinches and corn buntings.

In recent years, though, farmers and government have realized hedgerows' 
worth. In 1989, the government reversed its old policy and began to pay 
subsidies for planting and maintaining hedges. In 1997, it introduced The 
Hedgerow Regulations, which made unauthorized destruction of hedgerows a 
criminal offence.

Badgers find a home in hedgerows. (Picture courtesy Countryside Agency)

Just when it seemed that hedgerows may begin to flourish again, the 
European Union's arable payments scheme threatened their widespread 
elimination.

Under the scheme, farmers who applied for European Union subsidies based on 
the area of their fields would have to tear up hedgerows wider than two 
meters (6.6 feet). The policy led to heavy protests in environmental 
protection circles and the British press, who claimed that the European 
Union was forcing British farmers, for the sake of agricultural use, to cut 
down hedges.

Intense lobbying by the UK's National Farmers' Union and the Ministry of 
Agriculture culminated in European Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler 
announcing Monday that British hedgerows are safe under the arable payments 
scheme.

Intensive modern agriculture enabled many farmers to replace pastures with 
crops, and large agricultural machinery made small fields impractical. 
(Photo by Ian Britton, courtesy 
<http://Freefoto.com>http://Freefoto<http://Freefoto.com>.com)

"Hedgerows often play an important environmental role and are part of a 
longstanding farming tradition, in particular in the UK," said Fischler. 
"The Commission has made a major effort to find a clear legislative 
solution. I think we have found a fair deal. In short, British hedgerows 
are safe - no farmer should feel motivated to cut them down."

The European Union's executive arm, the European Commission, decided that 
hedgerows and other traditional land features, such as ditches and walls, 
are part of the agriculture area eligible for farm aid if they are 
traditionally part of good agricultural cropping and utilization practises.

"I am sure the farming industry, environmental organizations and the many 
members of the public who have been concerned about the potential threat to 
the countryside and its biodiversity which would have resulted from a 
strict application of the so called two meter rule will welcome this 
outcome," said Ministry of Agriculture Better Regulation Minister Joyce Quin.

Quin thanked Fischler and praised his concern for the UK's traditional 
landscape features.

NFU vice president Michael Paske said the ruling was a victory shared by 
farmers and conservationists alike.

European Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler. (Picture courtesy 
European Commission)

"The Commission has been made aware of the unique network of hedgerows, 
field margins and ditches that make up Britain's countryside and the huge 
importance placed upon them. The Ministry of Agriculture has also provided 
the assurances that UK farmers secure no advantage from this calculation 
and that to alter the system would have created many more losers in terms 
of the countryside and wildlife."

Meurig Raymond, vice chairman of the NFU's Cereals Committee, said he was 
pleased common sense had prevailed.

"In the current climate for cereals producers, the prospect of being forced 
to rip out field boundaries at the behest of Brussels would have been one 
regulation too far," said Raymond.

The dense and prickly hedgerow, described 2,000 years ago by Julius Caesar 
as "impossible to penetrate," may yet have its renaissance.

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