[Pollinator] Farm for wildlife with hedgerows

Fri May 13 07:19:48 PDT 2016

An article about hedgerows, published today in MOSES Organic Broadcaster.
Enjoy!

FROM: Organic Broadcaster

https://mosesorganic.org/hedgerows/

*Farm for wildlife with hedgerows*

By Jarrod Fowler, Sarah Foltz Jordan, & Eric Lee-Mäder, The Xerces Society
for Invertebrate Conservation

The U.S. is currently undergoing the largest conversion of wildlife habitat
to cropland since just before the Dust Bowl. Over 11 million acres of
prairie have been converted to cropland since 2008. A report released in
2014 by the London Zoological Society analyzed populations of more than
3,000 species (birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, etc.) and concluded that the
Earth has lost half of its wildlife in the past 40 years.

How do we begin to bring wildlife habitat back to our farms? Conserving and
creating hedgerows is a great place to start.

Hedgerows are linear plantings of dense vegetation, commonly native woody
shrubs and trees. They provide fantastic opportunities to conserve
wildlife, sustain agriculture, and yield profits in previously unproductive
areas of your farm. Your infertile farm edges can become fertile refuges
for plants and animals that provide valuable ecosystem services. If you
plant hedgerows, wildlife will follow.

History tells of thorny hedgerows that thwarted Julius Caesar during 57 BC
on the borders of Belgium and France and during 55 BC in Britain. Living
fences of brambles and hawthorns enclosed and protected fields and stock
from animals and thieves. Fast-forward nearly 1,600 years, British hedgerow
planting evolved to become a best farming practice, championed by Thomas
Tusser’s 1557 book, A Hundred Good Pointes of Husbandrie. Unfortunately,
the heritage of British hedgerows grew derelict and suffered losses due to
the Industrial Revolution, two World Wars, and accompanying agricultural
intensification. The Countryside Commission of England reported that over
96,000 miles of British hedgerows were removed between 1947 and 1985—more
than 12 times the diameter of Earth.

For nearly a decade, the Xerces Society has worked with farmers to plant
hedgerows across the United States. Often these plantings follow the
property boundaries of small farms and integrate into enormous
interconnected networks that extend for miles.

*Benefits of Hedgerows*

Hedgerows provide farms with environmental, social, and economic values.
For example, hedgerows support wildlife with food, such as nectar, pollen,
foliage, fruits, as well as undisturbed soils and stems for shelter. The
same hedgerows can intercept, reduce, and screen airborne pollution, such
as chemicals, dusts, and noises, while sequestering carbon in biomass and
soils. These living fences simultaneously beautify farms and offer cultural
and ornamental resources, including wicker for basket weaving and poles for
plant supports. What’s more, hedgerows provide humans with foods,
medicines, and other products, such as fruits, nuts, herbs, and firewood.
Harvests of hedgerow fruits for jams, jellies, syrups, tinctures, and teas
can be abundant, nutritious, and profitable.

Research has shown that hedgerows export pollination and natural pest
control services to adjacent crops. For instance, recent studies in
California have investigated whether restored native hedgerows increased
native pollinator abundance and diversity in comparison to unmanaged field
borders. The results: farms with restored hedgerows host more native
pollinators than control sites (Figure 1). In addition, restored hedgerows
do not act as sinks for native pollinators, but rather as sources of native
pollinators for adjacent fields (Figure 2).

Hedgerows also increase natural pest control on farms. To examine this, the
Xerces Society collaborated with research partners to raise pests in labs,
have the pests lay eggs on sticky cards, stake the sticky cards out in farm
fields with and without hedgerows, and count how many pest eggs were
attacked by beneficial insects. The result: farms with hedgerows
consistently show higher numbers of pest predation than farms without
hedgerows (Figure 3).

Overall, research shows that creation and conservation of hedgerows on
farms enhances native beneficial insect communities, and exports ecosystem
services to adjacent crops. Such contemporary concepts actually bolster
age-old practices that work with nature to increase productivity and
resilience on farms.

*Site & Plant Selection*

First, assess the farm and spot appropriate locations for hedgerows. In
general, longer hedgerows with mature widths of 10-15 feet are best, but
shorter and narrower hedgerows work well for small sites. Flat or gently
sloping sites in full sunlight that are easily accessible, have minimal
weed pressure, and are protected from pesticide drift are key for
successful hedgerows.

Once you have settled on a suitable site, plant selection can begin. To
start with, familiarize yourself with natural plant and animal communities
in your area, and use this knowledge, along with site-specific climatic and
soil conditions, to guide your plant selection. Select a set of native
plant species that blooms throughout the growing season and provides
nutritious nectar, pollen, foliage, and fruit.

One rule of thumb is to select around nine species, including a minimum of
three that bloom during each season: spring, summer, and fall. If you know
when your crops and neighborhood flowers bloom, then you can design the
percentage of each hedgerow species to complement the bloom availability.
For example, if you have an apple orchard that provides late spring bloom,
you may wish to focus on early spring, summer, and fall blooming species.
Avoid selecting non-native plants and plant species that might serve as
alternate hosts for crop pests or diseases. For example, hawthorn is an
alternate host for fire blight and might want to be avoided in orchard
plantings.

Some of our favorite native woody plants for hedgerows in the Midwest
include: basswood, blackberry, blueberry, buttonbush, chokeberry,
chokecherry, currant, dogwood, false indigo bush, hawthorn, hazelnut,
leadplant, New Jersey tea, plum, raspberry, red elderberry, red maple,
rose, serviceberry, silver buffaloberry, snowberry, sumac, viburnum, white
meadowsweet, willow, and winterberry holly. Most of these species are
suitable for a range of site characteristics, but please consult with your
local native plant specialists and online resources such as The Biota of
North America Program’s North American Vascular Flora or United States
Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service
(USDA-NRCS) PLANTS Database.

The various plants in your hedgerow do not need to be represented equally.
For example, traditional British conservation hedgerows are standardly
composed of over 50 percent hawthorn for both stock-proof density and
wildlife values. A comparable Midwestern hedgerow mix may include:

• 60 percent hawthorn

• 10 percent blackberry

• 10 percent willow

• 5 percent silver buffaloberry

• 5 percent New Jersey tea

• 5 percent false indigo bush

• 5 percent white meadowsweet

*Preparation & Planting*

After plants have been selected, the site-preparation process can proceed.
Site-preparation is one of the most important parts of successfully
establishing a hedgerow. The more time spent reducing weed populations
before planting will result in greater success for hedgerow plants.
Sometimes, site-preparation can take multiple seasons to adequately reduce
competition from invasive, noxious, or undesirable weeds before planting.

Site-preparation methods for organic growers may include sheet mulching,
smother cropping (not recommended in the Upper Midwest), and soil
solarization. Site preparation could also include the creation of a 3-foot
tall and wide earthen berm as a hedgerow base. You can create a berm by
excavating and mounding soil from parallel ditches alongside the hedgerow.
Hedgerows planted into berms can provide greater drainage, screening, and
windbreak benefits. Fieldstones can be added to hedgerow berms to provide
more height and structure.

Once the site is sufficiently prepared, nursery stock may be manually
planted with shovels or mechanically installed in single-furrow-plowed
trenches, plowed ridges, or spaded notches. Measure the planting areas
prior to purchasing transplants and stage the transplants in the planting
area prior to installation.

Plant sizes at maturity should be considered when staging. Most woody
shrubs can be spaced on 4-foot to 10-foot centers, depending on sizes at
maturity and your goals for the hedgerow. For stock-proof hedgerows,
transplants are traditionally spaced at 8 inches. (That is a lot of
hawthorns!)

Installation can happen any time the ground can be worked, but should be
timed to avoid extended periods of dry, hot, or windy weather. Spring and
fall are typically great times to transplant shrubs and trees.

All transplants should be deeply watered immediately after planting. Holes
for plants can be dug and pre-watered before planting. Compost should be
incorporated during planting in areas where the soil is compacted,
degraded, or depleted. Make sure that transplants receive at least 1 inch
of water per week either from rain or irrigation for the first two years
after installation.

Apply a layer of bark mulch, wood chips, or weed-free straw to your
hedgerow to reduce weed competition and retain moisture. During and after
hedgerow establishment, manage weeds and protect plants from deer or
rodents. Selectively prune hedgerow shrubs and trees outside of wildlife
nesting seasons and never more than 30 percent during any year.

Financial & Technical Assistance

The USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service offers two programs, the
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation
Stewardship Program (CSP), that could help fund your hedgerow projects.
Contact your local NRCS field office (see nrcs.usda.gov) to ask about
opportunities. The NRCS also can provide technical assistance for hedgerow
planning and installation. Ask about practice code 422.

Hedgerows are a great asset to a farm. They’re also a smart way to increase
the value and performance of the buffer areas around fields. For more
information about hedgerow plants that attract pollinators, see
www.xerces.org/fact-sheets.

*Jarrod Fowler works for The Xerces Society as a pollinator conservation
and conservation biocontrol specialist for the Northeast Region. Sarah
Foltz Jordan is a pollinator conservation specialist for the Great Lakes
Region. Eric Lee-Mäder co-directs the pollinator program.*

>From the May | June 2016 Issue

________

*Matthew Shepherd*

Communications Director

*[image: Xerces-logo-CMYK-email_Outlook]*

*Protecting the Life that Sustains Us*

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