CHRW2: Manage hedgerows

No substantive changes have been made to this action for SFI26 (compared with the SFI24 version). There have only been minor updates to standard wording which appears in all linear SFI actions.

This action’s aim is that there are managed hedgerows with a range of different heights and widths.

The purpose of this is to provide:

• habitat for wildlife
• pollen, nectar and berries for mammals, birds and insects

What you must do

You must manage hedgerows entered into this action. What you must do to manage them depends on whether they’re:

• fully established, which will usually be the case around 5 years after they’re planted
• newly planted, or not fully established

If the hedgerows are fully established, you must use one of the following management approaches (you can use different approaches on different fully established hedgerows):

• cut each hedgerow incrementally
• on a rotation, cut each hedgerow no more than once every 3 years, cutting no more than one third of hedges each year
• on a rotation, cut each hedgerow no more than once every 2 years, cutting no more than half the hedges each year
• managing them in a coppicing or laying rotation, which may mean they’re left uncut for the duration of your 3-year SFI agreement

If the hedgerows are newly planted, or not fully established, you must lightly trim them incrementally. You must do this until they’re fully established.

When to do it

For fully established hedgerows, if you’re cutting them:

• incrementally, you must do this during the autumn and winter months (usually September to late February), each year of this action’s 3-year duration
• on a rotation no more than once every 3 years, you must do this during the autumn and winter months
• on a rotation no more than once every 2 years, you must do this in late winter (usually from early January to late February)

For newly planted hedgerows, or hedgerows which are not fully established, you must lightly trim them incrementally:

• during the autumn and winter months
• each year of this action’s 3-year duration

Where you can do it

An eligible hedgerow for this action must be:

• a boundary line of shrubs, or both shrubs and trees
• over 20m long
• less than 10m wide

The hedgerow can be:

• newly planted, laid or coppiced
• woody growth on top of an earth or stone-faced bank, for example, Cornish or Devon hedges

There can be gaps in the hedgerow if they’re not more than:

• 20m long
• 10% of the total length of the relevant hedgerow when you add all the gaps in it together

If the gaps add up to more than 10%, you can only do the action on the total length of the hedgerow if you’ll plant up the gaps during this action’s 3-year duration.

Rotational or static

This action is static. This means you must do it at the same location each year of this action’s duration.

Evidence to keep

You must keep evidence to show what you’ve done to complete this action, such as:

• field operations at a land parcel level and associated invoices
• photographs or other documentation

If it’s not clear that you’ve done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, we may ask for this evidence. You must supply the evidence if we ask for it.