Approximately 11,000km of hedgerows have been planted through farm schemes such as REPS, AEOS and GLAS over the past number of years, according to Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Pippa Hackett, who launched Teagasc Hedgerow Week.

A further 6,000km of hedgerows have been rejuvenated under these schemes, she said.

The minister stated that the Department of Agriculture is working to develop this further in the new CAP.

“We have lost significant lengths of hedgerows over the past number of decades and this is something that we need to reverse in this all-important decade of change for climate, biodiversity and so forth.”

The minister also urged anyone carrying out work on hedgerows to do so safely and with the correct personal protective equipment.

About 4% of the Irish landscape is taken up by hedgerows, equating to approximately 689,000km.

Hedgerow Week is led by Teagasc countryside management specialist Catherine Keena, who noted it was great to see that “lots of people are talking about planting hedges outside of schemes.”

Keena noted that no hedge should be cut without thinking. She stated that safety comes first, that there are some hedges which do not need to be cut and that it is important to plant a variety of hedges to increase biodiversity on all farms.

Teagasc director Frank O’Mara said plans to plant 25km of hedgerows across Teagasc farms are well underway.