3000 km of hedgerow destroyed per year

well see magicbastarders post, nearly all of our woodlands are sitka spruce for profit, it's not the same in the UK, the difference is very noticeable when you're in the countryside here. we are consistently around the bottom of charts and statistics when it comes to biodiversity in the EU, a lot needs to be done.

they didn't cut them all down, most were gone by the time they came to ireland. also they've been gone 100 years and all the metrics related to nature have gotten way worse, you can't blame that on them.

How exactly could they have created ancient woodland in 100 years? How does that work?

And yes, they did cut down most of what was there when they arrived. If you are referring to "most of them being cut down" I presume you are referring to bronze age people clearing the land to live here. The native Irish actually revered trees btw. Their letters were named after them even.

There is actually some ancient woodland somewhere in Ireland. I think there is one relatively small site somewhere. I can't remember exactly where. It might be on some old estate up North.

Edit: This is the one I was referring to. https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/support-us/give/appeals/mourne-park-appeal/

Yeah I can't see anything changing, unless the gov bought swathes of land of something and left it alone and thats not going to happen. Kind of sad really that humans just gave the whole island a brazilian.

Actually, farmers were directly penalised under the EU rules for having hedges which were too big. You might find that unbelievable, but it is 100% correct.

BTW, ash is not an option for the foreseeable future. That's gone for now.

It may be true historically but the reason for continuing reduction in hedges isn't the fault of EU; its large commercial farmers squeezing every last inch out of their land.

• spraying weed killer from a quad/tractor along headland ditches is commonplace
• cutting hedge down to the ditch when "tidying" a place up is commonplace
• removing all large trees in ditches

Even the Local council were spraying the grass margin on all the road side ditches in my area in the last few years

As pointed out though, the reference point is now 2009. If that change happened since 2009 then it was breaking the law. If it happened before then, then I don't know exactly what the rules were back then. You say "not taken seriously". It could be the case that it was allowed back then. That doesn't mean it was right - I am just saying you cannot enact a law and apply it retrospectively.

Note that the law as it stands does not allow for you to "get away" with it as long as you are noticed for long enough before you are caught. Penalties will be applied in the year of discovery and the farmer will have to reinstate to at least the 2009 condition.

And yes, it is more common for tillage men to do that. It would make no sense for most farmers with animals to have done that as the original fields were of a decent size.

What you have there in your photo is a situation where a farm was sold and the buyer came in and bought it as an outfarm and knocked it all into one field. Your screenshot on the left is from 2004-05 though.

Go to the geohive link magicbastarder gave above and look at that location for the 2004 OSI satellite and the 2005 OSI satellite. You will see that the 2004 map is more like what you have but the 2005 one already has some ditches gone that are in your image

Actually, those series are not 2004 and 2005. They are 2004-2006 and 2005-2012. You can report them if you think you have evidence.

I don't know, but what I would imagine is that the poster is trying to repeat some sort of technicality such as "10,000 years ago Ireland was completely covered in trees but then people arrived and by the time the English took over, we only had under 50% coverage in the country".

Which would really be seen as a silly way of defending against the fact that the English did cut down most of our trees.

It's their land and their livleihood, how dare they not be beholding to those who know best how to mange their properties and how much they should be allowed to earn.

It might be best to just nationalise all the farms and plant them as forests and then all the greenies in urban areas can just import all their food from France and the EU in general and feel smug satisfaction as to their eco-moral superiority over those stupid countries that are feeding their faces.

The state seized full environmental control over land I owned, without so much as a cent of compensation, which then devalued that land, by making it a SAC. The SAC legislation is so draconian that if the wind broke a branch that fell in the woods, I was not allowed to cut it up for firewood. When the wind pushed a tree over the access road to my house, I would not be allowed to touch it without first asking Parks and Wildlife for permission to remove it. Similarly, If I wanted to remove nettles in my garden or mow the lawn, or prune the roses, I first would have to make a submission to the department in writing asking for permission, and could then require me to pay for a report from an environmental consultant as to whether I should be allowed to do those things.

I'd love to seize a bedroom in the houses of all these people who think farmers should suffer uncompensated loss of earnings because of their socialist views on property ownership and the environment; 'environment' being someone elses property, not their own of course, and give it to some Ukrainian refugees. No compensation of course, and tough luck about the decline in your property value.

Now about this misconception you have about the UK vs Irish countryside, and it really is huge:

So 95,000 * 2.5 * 1.609 = 382,138 km of Hedrow in the UK

The population of ireland is roughly 5m; the Uk is 68m, so there's 138m of hedgreow per person in Ireland vs 5.6m per person in the Uk

So your belief that Ireland is deficient in hedgerows compared to the Uk is less than worthless and wrong on a massive scale.

As far as I can make out there are no hedges removed on that farm bar perhaps a few meters beside the farmyard.Fairly substantial patch on the right of the photo planted as well.