The Hedgerows

From Xerces Society’s Wings Fall 2024:

“Hedgerows bring beauty and wildlife habitat to any landscape, rural or urban. After decades in which they largely disappeared, they are making a comeback.”

Hedgerows (stopover habitats) can be traced back to when nomadic hunters settled into farming, clearing patches to create sunny openings. As other nearby farmers slashed and burned their clearings, the forest eventually receded into thin strips of remaining trees and shrubs. Over centuries, large primeval woodlands shrank to become thin relic skeletal segments. Hence the first, and oldest, hedgerows.

In the United States, farmers began to grub out hedges to create larger, more profitable fields. The disappearance of hedgerows, along with never-ending wind and drought, led to an unforeseen  increase in soil erosion, producing the Great Dust Bowl.

The administration of President Franklin Roosevelt launched the Prairie States Forestry Project, with the goal of planting linear windbreaks of trees and shrubs along a hundred-mile-wide band extending from North Dakota to Texas.

More recently, there has been an even broader focus on the conservation value of hedgerows, specifically the fostering of biodiversity. Combining insectary strip, beetle bank, foraging, nesting, and overwintering sites into one neat package, hedgerows are a wonderful way to enrich any landscape that lacks habitat, rural or urban.  (Taken in part from The Hedgelands by Eric Lee-Mäder)

Hedgerows typically consist of a tangle of trees, shrubs, forbs, and grasses that yield seeds, nuts, and berries, making it a complete ecosystem. Sometimes you’ll even find an old fence or stone pile somewhere in the middle to complete the habitat.

Most of the hedgerows that used to grow haphazardly around the countryside in America are now nearly a thing of the past. Because of the current emphasis on growing corn, every extra piece of land is being used for agriculture. So it’s up to us — the public — to provide as much habitat as we can for the birds, pollinators, and mammals that depend upon it for a food source, nesting area, and protection from the elements. If you can provide stopover habitat (hedgerows) for our friends who migrate, or a comfy habitat for our friends who stay for the winter, you’re one of the good guys, and we all thank you very much.

If you are a Wild Ones member, for more information, see these articles:

The Importance of Using Native Plants in Small Stopover Habitats  page 1-2

Berrying the Pump Stations page 1, 6-7

The Home page image for this blog post shows my prairie. This dense hedge of wild roses is no longer along the perimeter of my prairie thanks to the roving deer and rabbits. There are many 12 to 18-inch rose stems growing everywhere in my prairie, but since prairie roses only blossom on old wood, we no longer see any blossoms. This is the place where buckthorn can thrive. Make sure it is removed!