Published24 minutes ago
England’s hedgerows would stretch almost ten times around the Earth if lined up end to end.
That’s according to a new map – the most comprehensive to date – of these historic features of the landscape.
Ecologists hope the data will lead to better protections for the much-loved lines of trees and shrubs that provide food and shelter for wildlife, and store large amounts of carbon.
Laser scanning from the air reveals a total of 390,000 km of hedges.
The South West boasts the most hedgerows, led by Cornwall.
Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire are the counties with the least – excluding big urban areas.
“We’ve probably got more hedgerows in England than anywhere else in the world so we’re very lucky to have this huge resource,” said Dr Richard Broughton of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, who led the project.
“As a national policy, we’re trying to expand hedgerows in this country, and this will tell us where there are gaps in the hedgerow network that we could fill in.”
Hedgerows have been part of the rural fabric of Britain since the Bronze Age, marking out boundaries and keeping in cattle.
They contain hundreds of different wild plants, provide shelter for nesting birds, small mammals and insects, and can capture and store large amounts of carbon.
About half of Britain’s hedgerows were lost between the 1940s and 1990s, mostly in England, due to intensive farming and development
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