I absolutely love hedgerows.
It is one of the best land use practices of the UK and yet didn’t seem to make it over here.
Everything else did so I’m not sure why this one didn’t. Probably because it harkens back to pre-industrial agriculture.
In case you don’t know a hedgerow is a roughly 10-30m wide patch of dense forest that marks the boundaries between fields and farms. It is generally made up of hazel, hawthorn, alder, cherry, dogwood and other woody perennials.
You can google it. There are loads of delightful articles.
The point of this one is for me to talk about my daydreams of hedgerows and for someone to convince me that planting them here in North America along our highways and waterways is a bad idea.
This morning I read this article which tells me I am right. Adopting hedgerows in North America is an action that has the potential to transform our landscape in a positive direction. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-edge-habitats-roads-power-lines.amp
To me a hedgerow is a perfect marriage between wild and landscaped.
We have hundreds of thousands of kilometers of railway easements on this continent. Imagine if they were transformed into wildlife preserves that could shelter both flora and fauna.
Hedgerows.
Just saying.
