Life in the hedge: how to manage hedgerows for wildlife – online event

[This is not an SSB event, but is close to our hearts!]

Tuesday 22 February 2022: Life in the hedge: how to manage hedgerows for wildlife: an on-line event organised by Moor Meadows, a Devon grassroots community group.

Native hedgerows can play a major role in helping nature recovery and mitigate climate change. Only 14 per cent of hedgerows in England are in good condition and there is immense potential for managing hedgerows for wildlife and people. Hedgerows can prevent flooding, soil erosion and are important carbon stores. They provide dispersal corridors across the countryside and are vital to the survival of much farmland wildlife. A well-managed healthy hedge can become an amazing ecosystem, with an astounding species-richness, providing shelter, nesting habitat, wildflowers and berries for a wide range of wildlife. Many priority species for conservation action are associated with hedgerows.

Join us online to discover:

• How to manage a hedge as a wildlife habitat
• How the wrong kind of management can lead to hedges losing much of their value for wildlife and a reduction in the longevity of the hedge
• How and when to rejuvenate a hedge

Speakers and talks, which will be followed by a Question & Answer session:

• Rob Wolton: “Why hedges are good for wildlife and for us.” Rob formerly worked for Natural England and its predecessor bodies and is now Chair of the Devon Hedge Group‘. Rob’s talk will focus on the great importance of our hedges for farmland wildlife and why they are so valuable to us and for carbon capture.
• Nigel Adams: “Hedgerow Management – a life cycle approach.” Nigel is Vice Chair of the National Hedgelaying Society and a member of Hedgelink, the steering group for national hedgerow policy. Nigel will at the good the bad and the ugly of hedgerow management and suggests that we need to allow hedges to progress slowly through a natural lifecycle before being rejuvenated.
• Mike Ingram: “Useful by-products from a laid or coppiced hedge.” Mike is a regular SSB volunteer and part of the SSB Hedges and Woodland Group (‘The Steepers’): Mike will share information on the useful products that can be utilised from the arisings, from woodfuel to biochar.

This talk is free, but if you can afford a donation, between £2.50 and £10, this will go towards supporting Moor Meadows’ work.

Book for the event via: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/life-in-the-hedge-how-to-manage-hedgerows-for-wildlife-tickets-258558053097. On registering, you will receive the link to watch the talk again immediately afterwards, plus a list of relevant links of interest provided by the speakers.