Hedge Flailing (1 Viewer)

[JamesA]

It seems to be the season for flailing at the moment and I realised I don't actually know why it's done and what the thinking behind it is.

Apart from how it looks (terrible) I can only imagine that thrashing a hedge back to a tiny two foot wide dead-wood box renders it ecologically useless. I can perhaps understand it in certain circumstances, if the hedge obstructs a road or pavement for example. I can perhaps understand why a farmer might do it to increase, just marginally, the farmable area of a field. But you can regularly see it done to hedges that have verges either side of them, have headlands along them, hedges that aren't in the way of anything. Other than making it look neat I can't imagine there's a purpose or benefit to anyone. Unless there are benefits I'm overlooking here?

 

[Capercaillie71]

Cutting back a hedge encourages it to become denser and more bushy, so there is a potential benefit to wildlife in terms of providing better cover for nests etc. However, to get this benefit, the cutting shouldn't be done more often than every 2-3 years (or longer). Cutting every year not only produces a hedge that offers no cover, but by removing the previous year's growth also reduces the production of berries the following year. The type of cutting that you describe has no real benefit except that the farmer probably thinks it looks neat and tidy (unless it is done for road safety reasons as you mention).

 

[Dog]

The problem these days is flail instead of laying, for a lot of farmers hedges are just a pain, while surveying large areas of Warwickshire the most common code I wrote down for hedges was 'J22' which stood for Defunct Hedge meaning poorly maintained & gappy (ie not creating a corridor for wildlife).


Mike.

 

[Paul Chapman]

I'm glad someone mentioned this. At the moment around me, hedges quite bluntly are being grubbed out. It is not flailing or cutting back but in essence wholesale removal of trees, bushes and vegetation. In addition, the soil surrounding the ditches is being compacted.

I anticipate the work is intended to maintain drainage ditches - particularly with what has happened on the levels. I've dealt with a litigation case in the past relating to flooding caused by neighbouring development - albeit admittedly it was concreting which reduced the water absorption of the surrounding land.

The type of activity which I'm seeing at the moment is in my view removing vegetation which stood a chance of absorbing water and is likely to lead to problems in the longer term. I don't think that it has been thought through.

A byproduct is that the destruction of the hedgerows meant that last year I didn't find a single Small Eggar larval nest. It's a notable moth species - probably our second most important local resident. I'll be looking harder this year but I fear the worst.

Very sad. Personally I suspect the more major issue in the longer term isn't going to be nesting sites but lack of food for breeding birds.

All the best

 

[MSA]

I'm glad someone mentioned this. At the moment around me, hedges quite bluntly are being grubbed out. It is not flailing or cutting back but in essence wholesale removal of trees, bushes and vegetation. In addition, the soil surrounding the ditches is being compacted.

I anticipate the work is intended to maintain drainage ditches - particularly with what has happened on the levels. I've dealt with a litigation case in the past relating to flooding caused by neighbouring development - albeit admittedly it was concreting which reduced the water absorption of the surrounding land.

The type of activity which I'm seeing at the moment is in my view removing vegetation which stood a chance of absorbing water and is likely to lead to problems in the longer term. I don't think that it has been thought through.

Quite - my simplistic understanding of the recent floods is that it's better to keep vegetation and stop the water reaching the ditches, than to channel water into cleared ditches and move the problem further downstream. Trouble is, farmers don't get paid for this, only for land "in production".

 

[stonechat1]

I didn´t find a proper translating for "flailing". But photos online are showing hedgerows which are cutted back.
As Capercaillie71 allready pointed out the hedge will grow more bushy afterwards. Why it´s done now? Because the injuries for the tree/bush aren´t so massive as during the spring or summer when they are growing new leafs, twigs and fruits. In spring the sapflow is too strong and that hurts the plant much more as now where there is no growing and sapflow is much less.
That´s why our farmers (living in a vineyard - country) are cutting most branches except 2 from the grapevine now for the next harvest. And from this two branches the new branches and grapes are growing. Sorry for the bit OT, just wanted to illustrate the situation a bit.

 

[dantheman]

Quick google comes up with a short video here -

http://www.hedgelink.org.uk/hedgerow-management.htm

(Click on '5. Hedge Trimming' just below the black video box)

I'm sure there's lots more out there on the web ...


The shape of hedgerows when larger is also important I believe - an A shape being good all round. Loss of mature hedgerow trees also an important factor.

 

[Andy Hurley]

The cutting back of hedgerows is done in winter for the reasons Roman gave. The expertise of those employed by local councils is questionable. Locally, Paderborn Germany, there has been a massive amount of cutting, including all the fruit bearing bushes that were providing winter food for the wildlife.

 

[dantheman]

What is going wrong then?

Here in the UK at least (and I'm sure it's similar in the rest of Europe), best practice for wildlife management is well known and a priority on various levels. Economies on a local scale for councils can't be the answer. Farmers do often care about the wildlife component of their environment, but often they don't, plus if it saves work ...

For example the wildlife trusts, local council departments etc all have the information about how to go about management of green, wild and urban areas to suit wildlife and fulfill their various obligations to farmers, road users, the general public and wildlife and wildlife legislation and directives.

Are management plans too expensive, too daunting or unreadable?

 

[Andy Hurley]

What is going wrong then?

Here in the UK at least (and I'm sure it's similar in the rest of Europe), best practice for wildlife management is well known and a priority on various levels. Economies on a local scale for councils can't be the answer. Farmers do often care about the wildlife component of their environment, but often they don't, plus if it saves work ...

For example the wildlife trusts, local council departments etc all have the information about how to go about management of green, wild and urban areas to suit wildlife and fulfill their various obligations to farmers, road users, the general public and wildlife and wildlife legislation and directives.

Are management plans too expensive, too daunting or unreadable?

It could be that they are "pressganging" the locally unemployed and not giving them enough supervision.

 

[MJB]

What is going wrong then? Here in the UK at least (and I'm sure it's similar in the rest of Europe), best practice for wildlife management is well known and a priority on various levels. Economies on a local scale for councils can't be the answer. Farmers do often care about the wildlife component of their environment, but often they don't, plus if it saves work ... For example the wildlife trusts, local council departments etc all have the information about how to go about management of green, wild and urban areas to suit wildlife and fulfill their various obligations to farmers, road users, the general public and wildlife and wildlife legislation and directives. Are management plans too expensive, too daunting or unreadable?

Hedge management doesn't have any UK-wide set of policies, nor is it implemented by local authorities at the same level. There are County Councils that have different ways of budgeting and different levels of sub-contracting (or sub-sub- contracting and so on). There is no coherent policy on the timing of hedge management, nor are there common habitat/cutting/shaping policies. Many workers are temporary and have no expertise. There is no oversight of the quality and standard of hedge-cutting gear (an unsharp rotary flail damages hedges, but it costs money and time to keep in top condition). Many sub-sub contractors have rented the cheapest kit they can find. There is no agreed suite of cutting/trimming methods. Finally (for now!), many contractors/council employees have no idea of why hedge profiles (eight/cross-section) are important (I've talked to quite a few in my local area), but are on a set time-limit or on a fixed price.:-C

Apart from that, there are no problems:C. However, in some places locally, there are superbly-managed hedges, and most of these are privately-maintained.:t:
MJB