3000 km of hedgerow destroyed per year

I would love to know where the 3000km are?

I have seen feck all removed over the last number of years and have known people fined for doing so.

I see alot getting cleared down our way , limerick/tipp, to make way for more super green forced grass with not a weed I sight for some reason.

Living in maynooth /celbridge /kilcock area, its disappearing at a fast and saddening rate. Concrete and roundabouts is all we'll have soon.

This is the length of your intestine:

Do you know how many lengths of string you could lay out on irelands roads without ever touching one another?

(It's about 95,000 km, according to Statista..) Nobody said it was a single road from A to B going 3,000 km as the crow flies, hey.

I presume hedgerow isn't just roadside hedgerow it include all hedgerow including those between fields

This is the claim - So, very little native forest and 3000 km of hedgerow removed every year.

every year?? really?? Those were some busy people during 2 years of Covid lockdown, They must have been really busy in the years after the Celtic tiger crash, no the claim every year does not stack up.

Another consideration suburbia is not a desert. 13,000-20,000 years ago, this was was a barren ice cap. It because tundra for a while, likely 8,000 years ago the area was heavily forested or a swampy mess. As far as we can tell humans have been active on this island for 8,000 years. In that time both our ancestors and ourselves have been reshaping the landscape to suit our needs. Hedgerows are entirely a man made intervention from the time of the Normans on. The last of the native forests were cut down to build the British navy. During the 18th and 19th centuries the land was mostly used for tillage, which fell off after the end of the corn laws and farmers switched to cattle farming being unable to compete with the United States. Practically everything you see in the Irish countryside today was shaped by man.

Let's look at suburbia there is no shortage of trees, or shrubs, there is an ecosystem there that supports wildlife. How many of you have bird feeders? That's a real plus for many species compared to the countryside during Winter. Do you think insects have nothing to feed on in these gardens? I spend part of my time Dublin and I've built up a buffet for birds and insects. Right now I have crocus open across the lawn, Daphne in bloom, this is a major plus at this time of year for queen bees and these plants are non native to Ireland. Mice nesting in the compost heap are a problem, but they are managed with cats. During the Summer my garden has lots of bats in the evening and Swifts nest tin the eaves of houses.

The idea that the country must be turned into a wildlife theme park is ridiculous, the landscape will continue to change. The ubiqutpus magpie did not exist in Ireland before the 11th century, the rabbit came in with the Normans, the collared dove only arrived in the 1960s. The harriers are non native they depend on coniferous forest. Different species will come and go and adapt to the new environment.

That area you are looking at in suburbia is not mono culture agriculture, it is much more diverse.

The hedgerow claim is BS . There is no way that 3000 km of them are removed . Maybe they are referring to hedges being trimmed ? These folks tend to exaggerate

Receipts for what ?

I was answering another poster and confirming that the total figure for removal includes non roadside hedgerows.

Clearly you are doing a good job on your farm and are not part of the problem.

I believe it, it all adds up, just yesterday I saw a complete hack job done in a housing estate, every tree in the place was cut back, 100% of the budding twigs removed, all that is left is the truck and the stems of large branches.

Surely that is not the way to prune a tree into shape