Hedgerows

England’s hedgerows offer a valuable habitat for wildlife, amongst many other benefits, and we’re working to protect them and create more.

Hedgerows are the vital stitching in the patchwork of our countryside. Not only are they beautiful, with shifting seasonal colours, but they also benefit wildlife and the wider environment. They store carbon and help slow climate change, absorb water which otherwise might contribute to flooding and improve the quality of the air. In short, they are far too valuable to be allowed to disappear.

We think they need protecting, and support the Climate Change Committee’s call for a 40% increase in the extent of hedgerows by 2050 to help address the climate emergency. We have been glad to see government policy changing in recent years but more needs to done. CPRE North Lincolnshire have lobbied our local councils to ensure that the protection of hedgerows is considered in planning applications and encourage farmers to manage existing hedgerow habitats in a sustainable way.

You can help the cause by signing the CPRE petition calling for greater governmental protection of these valuable and iconic rural habitats.

Landowners can also get expert advice from organisations such as Hedge Link and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species on how to better protect and nurture their existing hedgerow habitats. PTES even has a free hedgerow surveying tool to help farmers plant, reinvigorate and manage hedgerows in the must ecologically sustainable way.