Did you know...
– Between 1946 and 1997 the length of hedgerow across England collapsed from approx 800,000km to 400,000km - that's 50% less natural habitat for wildlife
WildEast region collapsed from approx. 120,000km to 60,000km of hedgerow today
- A hedge can store up to 1 TONNE of carbon per kilometre per year until mature (20 years) so across WildEast we lost the capacity to store 5.5 million TONNES of carbon
- These two metrics make up the BNL – Bio-diversity net loss in our hedgerows
- The word hedge comes from the old English Hecg – meaning fence, so much that they are precious places where nature clings on, they were never created for wildlife
- Currently a hedge only need be 1.5 metres wide x 1 metre tall to be classified as a hedge – not much space for nature
The farm below is 136Ha and has lost approximately 18km of hedgerow, or 7ha of ‘space for nature’. Removing them also released 250 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere…