ACTIONS REQUIRED

• Identify ancient and/or species-rich hedgerows and assist with the development of a national register of ancient and/or species-rich hedgerows.
• Raise awareness amongst the public and land managers of the importance of hedges for wildlife, of their continued loss and the need of management to maintain biodiversity.
• Encourage community groups to adopt and maintain hedges through mechanisms such as Local Agenda 21.
• Encourage landowners to take up grants for planting and maintaining hedges, especially those which link important wildlife habitats.
• Encourage a reduction in stocking levels of livestock.
• Promote use of practices that can protect hedges from fertilisers and pesticides, e.g. conservation headlands and set aside.
• Strengthen the statutory protection provided by The Hedgerow Regulations (1997).
• Ensure development plans contain policies to promote the protection and management of hedges and seek to minimise adverse effects on hedges from planning proposals.
• Enforce the requirement for felling licences for hedgerow trees and encourage the planting of replacements.
• Encourage favourable cutting practices of hedgerows which border roads.
• Develop hedge management skills (especially for contractors) through training as well as organising further training events on surveying hedgerows.
• Carry out sample surveys at 10 year intervals to establish trends in ancient and/or species-rich hedgerow status and in number of hedgerow trees seen. Re-survey the hedges surveyed by the WI in 1977 to look at changes in condition.
• Consider the need for further research on economic outlets for the produce of hedge management such as biomass and fuel wood.
• Consider research on the effects of different hedge management regimes.
• Research into the colonisation of wildlife from hedges into new woodlands established next to old hedges.
• Inclusion of hedgerow work on the BAP group members' websites.
• Develop links with the Veteran Trees Initiative to protect valuable hedgerow trees and their fauna.
• Continue to extend the hedgerow survey to parishes not already covered.
• In partnership with CCC, have the locations of ancient and/or species rich hedgerows identified in the survey recorded on GIS.
• CLT and CPRE to liase on a gapping-up hedgerows project with the winners of the annual Cheshire CPRE Hedgerow competition.
• In partnership with the Life ECOnet Project, to survey, map and gap-up strategic hedgerows across Cheshire.
• In partnership with the Forestry Commission and Mersey Forest, to gap-up hedgerows at Old Pale Farm and Hopyards Wood Community Woodlands.
• Increase the number of people taking part in the Hedgerow Survey, which is coordinated by CLT, by 5.
• CLT to run one hedgerow workshop.
• To continue raising awareness of hedgerows through displays at the Cheshire Show and Cheshire Ploughing and Hedge-cutting Match and through articles in various newsletters.
• BTCV to continue running workshops on hedge laying.
• FWAG to continue providing advice to farmers and landowners on hedgerows, their management and funding opportunities through the Countryside Stewardship Scheme.
• CLT will continue to provide free hedgerow trees and hedgerow shrubs to Tree Wardens, Tree Guardians, schools and community groups for planting new hedgerows and gapping up existing ones.
• CLT will continue to provide free hedgerow shrubs to BASC members to gap up existing hedges on their land