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June 2001
Hedgerows are a mixed-species growth of plants in a straight or curved line. They vary in height, width and length. They often include trees, shrubs, vines, perennial forbs and grasses. Hedgerows are rooted in history and have meaning important for today and the future.
In Europe, hedgerows were planted between fields as fences for livestock, to mark property boundaries, and to indicate town and parish boundaries. In the United States, many hedgerows grew along fence lines from seeds deposited by birds as they perched on the fence. The seeds, having gone through a bird's digestive system, were ready to germinate.
In today's landscape in Britain, hedgerows still exist from Tudor times in the 16th century, as well as those planted in the 18th and 19th century field enclosures. As a result of the industrial revolution in the late 1800's, large-scale agriculture and big machinery changed the way the landscape was used, and hedgerows were removed to make larger fields.
Because of the beneficial functions of hedgerows, however, great effort is now being directed to retain and create hedgerows in Britain as well as in the United States. There are research projects to examine the ecological functions of hedgerows in different landscapes around the world.
The etymology of the word hedge illuminates its current meanings. Hedge, originally from the Anglo-Saxon hecg, meant yard, the area enclosed being named for the fence around it. The sense is to make something secure by hedging or fencing.
There is a continuity of the word's meaning for us today, in that hedgerows and hedges protect, enclose and make secure, albeit in different ways than in the past. Hedgerows protect by reducing pesticide drift. They protect waterways by restricting the flow of nutrients, soil and pesticides in surface water run-off. Hedgerows attract beneficial insects, birds, reptiles and mammals that eat insect pests, protecting nearby crops. Hedgerows are a protection from the wind. Native plants in a hedgerow help to control noxious weeds by competition and to reduce the amount of weed seeds available for germination.
Hedgerows, depending on their height, width, density and plant species, can provide many species of wildlife with food, shelter from predators and weather, nest sites and travel corridors. Native plants are best because they evolved to survive in a particular region. They are familiar and most useful to native wildlife. Hedgerows are most productive as habitat when they pass through areas with good wildlife cover and food resources. They are most useful as travel lanes when they connect to other hedgerows, woods, ponds, rivers, streams or other habitat areas.
A hedge, as different from hedgerow, is the term we use for a single line of a single species of plant. They are often narrower than the hedgerows in agricultural fields. We see hedges around many yards, protecting our privacy, marking property boundaries, and serving as a windbreak. They are used by wildlife in similar ways as hedgerows, especially if our yards offer other habitat components.
Designing our hedges more like hedgerows will add to their usefulness to wildlife, and provide the other benefits associated with them. Planting a double line of cedar trees and berry-bearing shrubs will create a hedge very attractive to wildlife.
You could let the birds plant your hedge by tilling a strip of land in autumn. Then create a linear perching area by placing posts at fifteen-foot intervals along the strip, and stringing twine or wire from post to post. Monofilament is dangerous to use in this situation because birds cannot see it and may injure or kill themselves if they fly into it. If you want the birds to plant a thicket rather than a hedge, place the posts in concentric circles with twine or wire connecting the posts.
Whether planted by birds or by you, hedges can offer wildlife food and cover as well as travel corridors around your yard and neighborhood. It seems that what is good for wildlife is good for our life.
By Nancy Coverstone (ncstone@umext.maine.edu), University of Maine Extension Educator in Androscoggin and Sagadahoc Counties
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