Editorial: Hedgerow policy and
protection—changing paradigms and the conservation ethic D. McCollin1 The aim of this special edition of the Journal of Environmental Management is to bring issues relating to the ecology, management and conservation of hedgerows to the atten-tion of a wider audience. As Baudry et al. (2000) inform...
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| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.477.2540 http://oldweb.northampton.ac.uk/aps/env/staff/dm_JEM12000.pdf |
| Summary: | protection—changing paradigms and the conservation ethic D. McCollin1 The aim of this special edition of the Journal of Environmental Management is to bring issues relating to the ecology, management and conservation of hedgerows to the atten-tion of a wider audience. As Baudry et al. (2000) inform us in the opening paper, hedges have a much wider distribution than pre-viously thought; they are cosmopolitan and (with the obvious exception of Antarctica) occur on every continent. Hedges consist of lines of shrubs and/or trees which demarcate the boundaries of fields and the terms ‘hedge’ and ‘hedgerow ’ are often used interchange-ably. Bates (1937) suggested that the term hedge should be used to define the upright woody component and hedgerow should be used when referring to the hedge bottom as well. Here, we adopt Bates ’ distinction, unless stated otherwise by contributors to this issue, although we recognise that other terms are in use elsewhere to describe similar features (e.g. fencerow in North America). Hedges are a quintessential feature of the British lowland landscape although concerns over their rate of loss since 1945 has led to a greater cognisance of their value in the wider countryside. The net loss of hedges in England between 1984 and 1993 was 158 000 km, equivalent to one-third of the total which existed in 1984 (Anon., 1999). It is surprising perhaps that this loss was due largely to benign neglect as opposed to deliberate removal. These changes, along with the concomitant changes in landscape pattern and their likely ecological effects, are considered by Barr and Gillespie (2000) in the second paper here. Increased intensification of agriculture in western Europe is such that hedges often |
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