A new approach to practical survey and interpretation of hedgerows: An introduction to the “Hedgerow Ecological Description Grading and Evaluation System” (HEDGES)

Abstract

Significant trees often occur in hedgerows, and in the urban area or the urban-fringe; these may be a context for the work of an arboricultural practitioner. There is a plethora of legislation and of guidance for the assessment of hedges and a tree specialist may be unfamiliar with the approaches used. This paper addresses the survey and interpretation of botanical data in hedgerows in England. It describes, in summary, a detailed survey method suitable for submitting to the Historic Environment Record (HER) to document hedgerows potentially scheduled for removal. This process also provides information on biodiversity and data to inform a mitigation or translocation strategy. The survey technique describes three levels of detail that can be recorded to satisfy different purposes and questions. These techniques require a novel approach to analysis that concentrates on interpreting the botanical data in terms of what information the species themselves can provide and the significance of their location and abundance, both at a landscape level and within individual hedgerows. The significance of groupings of species in both landscape and hedgerows is also considered.

Keywords:

• hedgerows
• hedgerow surveying
• hedgerows regulations
• hedgerow dating

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Friends of Hagg Wood for supporting and facilitating some of this work: Linda Maggs, Ron Bielby and Olwyn Fonseca, and especially Stephen Moorhouse who corroborated botanical evidence through his detailed and thorough historical research. We are also grateful for support from ADAS UK Ltd. John Dover is thanked for critical comments on an early draft.