Hedgerow corridors

Not proof read – needs Hedge Group sign off 

Devon has ~ 53,000 kms of hedgerow corridors –  wildlife-rich veins criss-crossing Devon. 

Over 2070 species have been found in a single Devon hedge in one year.  

We need to be proud of ‘scruffy’ hedges – nature isn’t neat. 

What we need to do and where

Snapshot

What wildlife rich looks like: 

A continuous network of thick, bushy hedges of various heights. Most are on banks which can be stone-faced in some areas.  A wide range of woody native shrubs including hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel but varying with soils and climate.  Large mature trees (standards) are common. Hedge bases and margins are flower rich or have tussocky grasses. They are especially beautiful in the spring with primroses, violets, orchids, red campion, greater stitchwort and bluebells.  Shrubs, trees, banks and margins provide shelter, nesting habitat and food (berries and flowers) and are full of birds and buzzing insects.  

Focus Species:   

Mammals:  Hazel dormice, hedgehog, harvest mice, greater and lesser horseshoe bat, grey-long eared bat, barbastelle bat, Bechstein’s bat 

Birds:   Farmland birds (including cirl bunting, linnet, yellow hammer, house sparrow)  

Moths and butterflies:  brown hairstreak butterfly, lackey and lappet moths 

Plants:  Plymouth pear, bastard balm, Devon whitebeam 

See the Devon Species of Conservation Concern spreadsheet for all species. 

Status:

UK priority habitat (provided 80% or more of shrubs are native species).  Hedgerows may contain ancient or veteran trees which are statutory irreplaceable habitats. 

1. About

Devon has an amazing 53,000 kms of hedges, a greater length than any other county in the UK.  Devon’s hedges, often occurring on banks, are a defining feature of our landscapes, occurring everywhere other than the upland moorlands of Dartmoor and Exmoor. They are of outstanding importance for wildlife, creating an intricate network of habitat and connectivity across Devon.  

Most of Devon’s hedges have ancient origins some even dating from the Bronze Age when farmers first started dividing land by creating banks using stones cleared from fields and soils from ditches. It is thought that three quarters of Devon’s hedges are of medieval origin or older. The six main hedge types in Devon tell the story of Devon’s farming history, geology, climate and soils.  

Hedges are of huge value. They divide land to demarcate ownership and control livestock. They provide shelter for crops and shelter and shade for livestock. They provide wood fuel and food (for us and wildlife). They prevent soil loss, buffer watercourses from pollution and area for area are at least as effective at capturing and storing carbon as woodlands. 

Their wildlife value results from the mosaic of habitats found within the hedgerow corridor – scrub, trees, earth bank, stone facing, grassy and flower rich margins. These habitats provide shelter, nesting sites, pollen and nectar. They support a huge range of species which use different habitats at different times of year. For example, bumblebees require flowering shrubs and trees in the spring, flowering margins in the summer and tussocky grasses and banks for breeding nests and hibernating.  See drop down for more details. 

Some hedges, which were planted and managed for agricultural purposes, are now found in urban areas. They are still of wildlife value and often form important features within urban green spaces. New hedges in our towns and villages are often composed of ornamental species such as leylandii, lonicera, privet and laurel.  Whilst these can have wildlife value (providing shelter, bird nesting sites and some food) they aren’t defined as UK priority habitats. 

As hedges are man-made they all require management to prevent shrubs growing into lines of trees and banks from eroding away. See actions in What we need to do and  where.  

For further details on Devon’s hedges please see the Devon Hedge Group website, see links under Find out more.   

Devon’s hedgerow corridors and wildlife

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The combination of all structural parts of a hedgerow corridor are important for wildlife.  

Woody shrubs:  Provide shelter, nesting sites and food.  Birds such as dunnocks, blackbirds and robins will nest in hedges in rural and urban areas.  Linnets, whitethroats and yellowhammers nest in hedges in rural areas and prefer short dense hedges.  Other species such as bullfinches prefer to nest in tall hedges (over 4m) and so it is important to have hedges of different heights across our landscapes. Hazel dormice also build their summer nests in shrubs in Devon hedges.   

The species of shrubs are important. For example, brown hairstreak butterflies and lappy and lacket moths all need blackthorn (the caterpillar foodpant) whilst lappy and lacket also feed on hawthorn. The caterpillars of white-letter hairstreaks feed on elm  and green hairstreaks on gorse. 

Orientation is important. Many invertebrates such as the brown hairstreak butterfly prefer warm south facing shrubs and so prefer hedges with an east to west alignment. 

Note: It was once thought that the number of woody species in a 30m stretch of hedge related to its age (Hooper’s rule). However, it is now thought that this was too simplistic and that the number of species relates to factors such as soils, climate and personal choice of whoever plants the hedge. 

Hedge banks: Provide habitat for flowering plants which in turn provide pollen and nectar for insects. Earth or turf faced banks provide nesting habitat for insects such as bees. Stone-faced banks can support rich moss, fern and lichen communities as well as shelter for insects and safe nesting places for birds such as wheatear and meadow pipit. 

Large mature trees:  Hedgerow trees are known as standards and have the space to develop large canopies. Younger trees provide nesting sites, food, shelter and singing posts.  Standards often develop into veteran / ancient trees with holes, crevices and dead wood which are full of wildlife. See links below for more information on the wildlife value of these trees.  

Vegetated margins:  Hedgerow margins with herbaceous (non-woody) flowers and tussocky grasses are an important part of the hedgerow mosaic. They provide nectar and pollen for insects and nesting sites for birds and small mammals. Harvest mice build nests in mature tussocky grasses in margins and some birds such as chiffchaff and wren will nest in dense brambles and vegetation in the margins.  

Devon’s six hedge types

Beaver, Svetozar CenisA summary of Devon’s six hedge types is given below.  For details see the Devon Hedge Group website.   

Clayland hedges with willow:  These hedges are found on the wet, acid clay soils of the north Devon Culm. They are generally species rich with blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel and holly. Willow is common reflecting the wet soils. Oak and ash are the main standard trees. They are normally found on turf faced banks and support hazel dormice, brown hairstreak butterflies (which need blackthorn) and willow tits (check).   

Windswept hedges with gorse:  On exposed south and north coasts, and high ground on Dartmoor, the south westerly winds create hostile conditions. Hardy species such as gorse, hawthorn and blackthorn are common, growing on banks which can be faced with stone. Typical trees include beech, oak and sycamore which can be bent in the wind forming distinctive landscape features. Some banks have just a scattering of gorse or heather on top. These hedges grow in clean air and are lichen rich. They support green hairstreak butterflies, whose caterpillars feed on gorse, and they provide important shelter and food for birds.   

Stone-faced hedges:  These are characteristic of Dartmoor, SW Devon , the north Devon coast and part of the South Hams. The type of stone used varies with geology with slate in North Devon, granite on Dartmoor, shale in the South Hams and schists around Prawle (see Geology). The hedges may or may not include shrubs and trees.  Stone-faced hedges are some of Devon’s most ancient hedges and some on Dartmoor (known as reaves) are around 3.500 years old. The stones can support rich moss, fern and lichen communities and provide safe nesting places for birds such as wheatear and meadow pipit. Building and repairing these stone-faced hedges is a highly skilled job. 

Hedges on limestone and chalk: These are found on the chalk of East Devon and the limestone of south Devon, especially Torbay. They support the normal woody species such as hawthorn and blackthorn but also lime-loving species rarely found in other areas such as dogwood, spindle and wayfaring tree. The climber old man’s beard can be common.  Notable plants include bastard balm (a Focus Species).  

Elm-dominated hedges: Hedges dominated by scrubby elms are a distinctive of the sandstone soils of the Exe valley and adjacent areas of mid and east Devon. These hedges were generally planted between the 15th and 18th centuries when farms were amalgamated and straight boundaries created.  Mature elms died during the Dutch elm epidemic that began in the 1960s.  These elms continue to send up suckers but they rarely develop into mature trees and lines of dead and dying young elms are a common sight. These hedges usually grow in turf-faced banks. Caterpillars of the white-letter hairstreak butterfly feed on elm leaves.   

Beech hedges:  Most beech hedges were planted by landed estates in the 18th and 19th centuries to mark the boundaries of newly enclosed fields (new takes), often from moorland and heathland.   They are characteristic of the edges of  Exmoor and Dartmoor uplands, of the Blackdown Hills and the north Devon Culm but are also found in East and South Devon. Beech hedges on the western edge of Exmoor and the Blackdown Hills have been allowed to grow into mature trees.  They can be valued local landmarks such as the lines of beech trees on the top of Peak Hill on the edge of Sidmouth.   

Beech casts heavy shade which reduces plant diversity.  However mature beech trees in hedges provides habitat for invertebrates, lichens, mosses and ferns. Beech seeds (known as mast) provides food for birds and small mammals in the autumn. 

Health check

Length and distribution 
There is ~  53,000km of hedges in Devon. They are distributed fairly evenly across the county, other than for high moorland.    
 
Whilst the Devon hedgerow network remains large and connect  however around a third of Devon’s hedges were either removed in the second half of the 20th century using Government grants in the drive to create larger fields for food production (possibly 20,000 kms) or are relict hedges due to lack of management.   
 
Designations 
Despite their international importance no hedges or hedge networks have any statutory or non-statutory designation.  However, the Hedgerow Regulations were introduced in 1997 to protect ‘important’ hedges from removal. Permission is needed from the Local Authority. 
  
Condition 
Between 2007 and 2009 the structural condition of hedges in ten parishes in Devon was assessed by Devon FWAG (Hodgson 2010).   38% of the 1,308 hedges sampled were found to be in favourable structural condition. The main issues were that they were too low, too thin, gappy, smothered in nettles or goosegrass, or have developed into line-of-tree hedges. 44% of hedges were trimmed and dense, 31% untrimmed, 14% tall and leggy and 2% had been recently laid or coppiced. 
 
In 2020  Natural England defined Favourable Conservation Status for hedges as when they:  
occur at an average density of 10km per km2   (Devon = 6-8 km per km2) 
have one hedgerow tree per 40m on average (Devon – this is currently met) 
95% are in good structural and functional condition (Devon – 38% – see above) 
when all UK priority species are assessed as Least Concern  (Devon – no – see Focus Species) 
 
In 2018, between 17.8% and 23.5% of the hedges in Natural Character Areas in Devon were in managed under Environmental Stewardship or Countryside Stewardship agreements, except for Exmoor where the figure was 35.5% (Lundy has no hedges) (Landscape Change Atlas 2021). 
 
Standard hedgerow trees:  No data is available on changes in the numbers in Devon.  Many were lost in the 1960s and 70s due to Dutch elm disease and ash dieback is now leading to further losses.   Forest Research state that 45% of hedgerow trees should be less than 25cm in diameter at breast height in order to ensure future succession. However in Devon this size of tree accounts for only about 26% (Hodgson, 2010)  
 
Up-to-date information on the extent and quality of hedges and their trees in Devon is needed.  

Key pressures and opportunities

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Management of hedgerow corridors

The main pressure on Devon’s hedges is lack of management, resulting in too high a proportion becoming line-of-tree hedges. These are less valuable for wildlife than shorter, dense hedges because they provide less shelter and protection, and plants growing in the banks and margins are often shaded out. However, in small proportions they are a useful component of any hedge network, providing additional structural variation. 
 
Other management pressures include: 

Hard annual trimming by flail cutters resulting in thin, short hedges which produce few flowers and berries and with gaps developing both at the base and along their length.  However, note that the pressure is not the flail cutter but how and when it is used. Flail cutters are the most economic and effective way of trimming hedges  

Lack of rejuvenation of shrubs by laying (steeping) or coppicing leading to gappy, thin hedges. 

Lack of future standard trees. 

Lack of bank management. 

Close cultivation or intense grazing pressure resulting in the loss of flowering plants. 

Fertilizer application or run-off into hedge bases and margins leads to the dominance of nettles and goosegrass, and probably bracken, ivy and hedge bindweed, at the cost of a more diverse flowers.  Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is likely to be exacerbating this. 

Impacts of pesticides, including herbicides, insecticides, vermicides or fungicides from agriculture and the management of green spaces and gardens. 

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Invasives and disease

The arrival or introduction of new pests, diseases or non-native invasives remains a high risk. Hedgerow trees are being lost due to ash dieback. Elms don’t reach maturity due to Dutch elm disease.  Acute oak decline, if it gains a foothold and spreads in the county, could be catastrophic. 

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Climate change

Climate change is likely to increase the pressure on hedges due to increased frequency of severe weather conditions, especially summer droughts which can impact on standard trees. 

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Loss of cross-compliance requirements

The legislative gap arising in December 2023 through ending cross-compliance without first putting in place any successor legal requirement has placed hedges under the immediate threat of loss of 2m protection zones.  

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Funding and collaboration

Agri-environment schemes, especially Countryside Stewardship and the Sustainable Farming Incentive are the main means through which farmers receive public support to manage hedges in a wildlife-friendly manner.  They offer both maintenance and capital payments for activities such as hedge laying and planting, and for encouraging new standard trees. The current trajectory is towards making these grants more attractive to farmers by paying more, so they offer a genuine economic alternative to intensive farming focussed solely on food production. 

Grants are also available for hedge planting and for new hedgerow trees. Sources include the Woodland Trust and The Tree Council, and through any HLF Projects (currently DWT’s Saving Devon’s Treescapes project).  The Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) grant scheme has further assisted with hedge planting and hedge laying. 

A major gap is funding for holistic hedgerow corridor management which considers not just the woody element but other structural habitats such as the banks, margins and any ditches. The focus is currently on woody shrubs.   

Likewise, the great majority of funding focuses on individual hedges rather than on networks.  A network focus would increase connectivity and structural, preferably dynamic, variation across farms and wider landscapes. 

Farmer groups, supported by Defra through the Facilitation Fund, are an important mechanism to achieve real change at a landscape level. 

In 2023 Government set an ambitious target for England of 30,000 miles of hedge being planted or restored by 2037, rising to a total of 45,000 by 2050 (Defra 2023). This should provide further opportunities for management of hedges through funding. 

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Devon Hedge Group

Over the last 30 years, since its formation in 1994, the Devon Hedge Group has sought to promote wider appreciation and understanding of the importance of the county’s hedges, and to provide guidance on their specific management requirements. The Group, a partnership of many organisations and individuals, has met with considerable success.  Hedges have a higher profile now than for over a century, and the amount of public money being spent on looking after them and expanding their reach is at an all-time high.  

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Re-integrated hedges into the farm business

One particular challenge is to secure the integration once more of hedges into farm businesses, so they are seen as an asset rather than a just an overhead.  To this end, the Devon Hedge Group has strongly advocated the management and cropping of hedges for wood fuel, as a source of renewable energy (Wolton 2014).  Gradually interest in this has been growing, although its full potential is far from realised.  Hedge brash and woodchip can be sold or used on farm for other purposes too, such as mire restoration, reducing river erosion, bedding, compost or biochar. 

Aligned to this, the growing interest in agroforestry is promising, breaking down the artificial divide between agriculture and forestry.  Hedges have much to offer farm enterprises, increasing crop and livestock yields through provision of shade and shelter as well as pollination and pest control services, and providing useful products, all in a sustainable manner.  Part of this is recognising the value hedges can have as supplementary feed, in particular as a source of scarce nutrients, either as browse or as tree hay (Whistance 2018). They also help to keep adjacent grass green during periods of drought. 

Likewise, the increasing popularity of regenerative farming should lead to improved hedge condition, since hedges help both to conserve soil and serve as a reservoir for worms, etc, exporting them into fields. 

So too the rise in popularity of mob grazing provides a good reason to plant new hedges rather than erect fences – hedges afford shade and shelter, for example. (Mob grazing is a form of rotational grazing that can increase the productivity, biodiversity and soil carbon of farmland.) 

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Role in Natural Flood Management / improving water quality

The increasing focus on natural solutions will help hedge conservation and recovery, through their roles of both keeping pollutants out of watercourses and reducing the risk of properties flooding 

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Urban impacts

In towns and villages some of the pressures on hedgerow wildlife include lack of management (see above) and also lighting, cats, litter and the use of herbicides.   

2. What we need to do and where

Priority

Better (healthy and wildlife rich) hedgerow corridors that are connected to a network of habitats across Devon. 

Actions for all hedgerow corridors

For links to management guidance and funding see Find Out More  

Manage Devon’s hedgerow corridors to improve their structural condition 

Hedge shrubs: 

  • Maintain thick, bushy hedges through cyclical trimming by tractor-mounted flails outside the bird nesting season. Ideally cut during January or February and on a 3-5 year rotation to provide berries and new growth for species such as brown hairstreak butterflies.   Leave at least half  or two thirds of hedges untrimmed each year? 
  • Rejuvenate hedges which have become gappy, or too high to be easily trimmed, through hedge  laying (known as steeping in Devon) or coppicing and extracting firewood in the process. 
  • Adopt conservation hedge laying styles in additional to competition-standard traditional ones. These are often better for wildlife, result in regrowth that is just as good, and are much faster and more economic to use.  Likewise, where appropriate, lay or coppice hedges mechanically. 
  • Where possible restore hedges which have developed into lines of trees.  
  • Plant up gaps as needed (including blackthorn for brown hairstreak butterflies and hazel for hazel dormice).  
  • Ensure structural variation in hedges at the farm or estate level, in particular in height and stages in the management cycle, with hedges being managed on rotation.  Decisions about how individual hedges should be managed should not be taken without reference to the state of others nearby. 
  • Be proud of ‘scruffy’ and unruly hedges – nature isn’t neat! 

Banks 

  • Maintain hedge banks by casting up slumped and eroded soil back onto the bank.  

Hedge bases/margins 

  • Manage and where needed restore flower-rich and tussocky grass margins and hedge bases where these are lacking or suffering from raised nutrient levels (as evidenced by excessive goosegrass, nettles and bracken, and perhaps ivy and hedge bindweed). This will be of particular benefit to pollinators. 

Standard trees 

  • Encourage the growth of new standard hedgerow trees and allow young standard trees to reach maturity. Selecting existing saplings, stems and shoots to grow on is usually more effective and practical than new planting. 

Lighting and litter 

  • Protect hedges from light pollution and reduce litter (do we need a page on lighting and on litter as important generic actions that we link to here?).   

Plant new hedges 

  • The priority in Devon is to improve the condition of existing hedges. However new native hedges should be planted where hedgerows are lost (e.g. due to development) to restore broken networks or to create green lanes. New hedges should include banks and native species as appropriate to the landscape and be looked after in the early years to ensure good establishment.   

Strategic actions 

Funding – agri-environment 

  • Encourage uptake of hedge options within agri-environment schemes (currently Countryside Stewardship and the Sustainable Farming Incentive).   
  • Agri-environment payments levels to be set at high enough rates to return a profit for farmers and fund holistic approaches to hedge management (managing all structural components and management at a landscape scale). 

Knowledge and training 

Increase awareness amongst farmers, land managers and contractors of: 

  • The benefits of managing all hedge structural components, including shrubs, banks, marginal and basal flora and ditches. Promote good practice at farm and machinery demonstrations, and at hedge laying competitions. 
  • The benefits of ‘scruffy’ hedges, with the aim of reaching a tipping point where this attitude becomes the norm.   
  • Recognising that hedges need to be taken through a cycle of management to stay healthy.  
  • The need for management decisions to take account of the condition of hedges across the farm / local landscape. 
  • The benefits of hedges within the farm businesses, so they are seen as an asset not a cost, for example carbon capture and storage, wood fuel, flood management and agroforestry. 
  • The biodiversity and economic benefits of conservation hedge laying and coppicing, including where appropriate by mechanised means, 

Monitoring and survey 

  • Put in place regular monitoring of hedge quantity and quality across the county, so changes can be detected.  This is likely to necessitate a well-resourced sample-based survey that involves ground truthing as well as remote imaging. 

Where to focus action

All Devon hedgerow corridors.   

No High Opportunity Areas have currently been mapped.  However we are working with the University of Exeter to assess the extent and condition of hedges in Devon. Our aim is to identify areas that fall short of the target of 10km / km2 and areas where there is a high proportion of over-managed and/or under-managed hedgerows. The recommendation will then be to focus attention on these areas to create more hedges and/or improve their management.  This mapping to hopefully be added prior to public consultation. 

The Exeter University map of Devon’s hedges is shown on the LNRS Viewer under Other Useful Layers / Woody Habitats / Hedgerow Corridors. This layer can take a long time to load.  See Mapping. 

3. Inspiration

Agree case studies and where to visit through Consultation phase. 

Case studies

Need some farmer case studies 

The Devon hedge group

The Devon Hedge Group champions the protection, management and expansion of Hedges across Devon.  They welcome new members and supporters.  Devon Hedge Group 

The Devon rural skills trust

The Devon Rural Skills Trust champions hedge management and hedge steeping in Devon through training and competition   Devon Rural Skills Trust 

Where to visit

Across lowland Devon!  

Look out for different hedge management including hedge laying. 

4. Find out more

To be finished through Consultation  

Add in – Hedgerow paper for LNRS – Rob Wolton, Devon Hedge Group 

Devon Hedge Group. Management Advice and Resources 

The Devon Hedge Group has produced a summary of the six types of Devon’s distinctive hedges 

Management of hedges to support bats Hedge management for Greater Horseshoe Bats   

Devon County Council provide information at Hedgerow information 

Hedgerow Regulations xxxxx 

In 2020 Natural England published a Definition of Favourable Conservation Status for Hedgerows 

Funding

Ask Hedge Group what we should link to here given could go out of date and farming group advise not to link to CS measures. 

Manage / create hedgerows based on adoption, and implementation, of a Management  

Plan, or similar, in accordance with the Countryside Stewardship Boundary Manual and to include regular cutting to accord with Countryside Stewardship BE3 (Management of hedgerows) 

Grants are also available from a range of sources for hedge planting and new hedgerow trees, including from the Woodland Trust and The Tree Council, and through the Saving Devon’s Treescapes project.  The Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) grant scheme has further assisted with hedge planting and hedge laying. 

Cycle of laying to accord with Countryside Stewardship BN5 

Include Hedgerow coppicing.  Restorative work to accord with Countryside Stewardship BN6 

Include Gapping up to accord with Countryside Stewardship BN7 

Include Casting up to accord with Countryside Stewardship BN8 

Include Preparatory work to accord with Countryside Stewardship BN9 

Management

Devon Hedges. 2014. Devon Hedge Group and Devon County Council.  

Forest Research 2009. Trends, long term survival and ecological values of hedgerow trees: development of populations models to inform strategy. Defra Research Report BD2111.  

Hodgson, C. 2010. Devon Hedgerow Survey 2007-2009. Devon Farming AND Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG). 

Landscape Change Atlas 2021. Land Use Consultants, Natural England. https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/ff32a2af68de4286b8a760c28c9c7d0a/page/Introduction/   

Staley, J.T., Wolton, R. and Norton, L. 2020. Definition of Favourable Conservation Status of Hedgerows. Natural England Report number RP2943.  

UKCEH 2024.  High-tech aerial mapping reveals England’s hedgerow landscape. Press release 30 January 2024. UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. https://www.ceh.ac.uk/press/high-tech-aerial-mapping-reveals-englands-hedgerow-landscape .  

Wolton, R. J. 2014. Wood fuel from hedges: How to manage and crop hedges in south-west England for fuel. Devon County Council, Tamar Valley AONB and The Devon Hedge Group.  

Targets

National Targets check this and add source – link to LNRS overview of targets   
Nature Rich 
Long Term.  95% under active management. 
Short Term. Maintain the existing resource of known ancient and veteran trees 
 
More and better connected 
Long Term.  Expanded as part of 16.5% canopy cover by 2050 
Long term.  Achieve a minimum density of 10 km of native species hedgerows per km2 including one hedgerow standard tree per 40 m  
Short term.  Consider to be part of 3,000 ha’s of new woodland by 2030 
 
Devon Hedge Group suggested targets:   
50% of hedges to be in structurally good condition by 2030.  
80% of hedges should have banks in good structural condition by 2030, and no more than 10% of hedges should be in the form of line-of-tree hedges (beyond the stage where they can readily be coppiced). 
5% of hedges laid or steeped each year. 
50% of hedges to have flower-rich and/or tussocky grass margins on at least one side by 2030.  
45% of trees to be less than 20cm in diameter (Forest Research 2009). 
An average of 10km of hedge per km2 (as per NE favourable conservation status criteria) 

Potential delivery partners

Devon landowners and managers. 

Defra – development and delivery of agri-environment schemes. 

Natural England – as above, and monitoring uptake and impact. 

All organisations working with farmers and offering them advice and guidance – encouraging and  helping them to enter into agri-environment schemes, lobbying Defra and Natural England for improvements to these schemes, and raising awareness of the desirability of a holistic, multi-component approach, of a network approach, and of the benefits of new approaches to hedge management such as conservation laying and coppicing with tree shears. 

Devon Hedge Group – overview of progress and priorities, production of guidance, and championing innovation. 

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