Heritage Hedgerows: Ancestry, Biodiversity, and Connectivity by Meadhbh Costigan

Hometree has completed a survey of hedgerows at our Illuan Farm-Forest site.

Two of our hedgerows are ancient townland boundaries that date to the 8th century. As such, they have high embankments and deep ditches. These man-made structures support significant biodiversity.

We found a variety of ferns, including; broad-buckler fern, hard fern, scaly-male fern, harts-tongue fern and royal fern. We also saw a surprising number of native woodland species including some ancient woodland indicators, like; wood sorrel, tutsan, dog violet, yellow pimpernel, barren strawberry and foxglove. These plants have adapted to life at the margins of farmland, protected from exposure by native shrubs, and finding their place by the small streams that run through the ditches.

We also discovered an active badger-sett and a range of other small mammal holes in the hedgerow embankments. This is a good example of how traditional agricultural practices can promote on-farm biodiversity in the Irish landscape. 

Rusty sallow is the dominant tree in our hedgerows. We identified that it has a flea-beetle infestation. At first this was a worry! But after carrying out a bird survey, it became clear that these insects were providing a steady food supply to the small songbirds on-site, including; the coal-tit, blue-tit, great-tit, and long-tailed tit.

We plan to improve the connectivity of the hedgerows at Illaun Farm-Forest by collaborating with local land-owners. The aim is to enhance existing hedgerows in the surrounding area in order to create a wildlife-corridor. This wildlife corridor will connect the Illaun Farm-Forest with nearby native woodlands. The result will be improved ecosystem-health for both sites and resilience to climate-change.

Collaboration is key when it comes to these landscape-scale approaches to land-management. We are looking forward to forming strong and mutually beneficial partnerships with landowners and the wider community. In this way, we will not only be connecting with the land but with each other as well. 

The scheme is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and the European Innovation Partnership (EIP-Agri) as part of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014-2022.