Nature on our doorsteps: Corridors for nature…

Rosaleen Dwyer is the County Heritage Officer at South Dublin County Council – every week she gives us an insight into nature on our doorsteps and the beautiful biodiversity of its plants and wildlife.

HEDGEROWS are a landscape feature that we tend to take for granted in Ireland.

However, Ireland’s patchwork of small fields as created by lines of hedgerows, is one of the landscape attractions that visitors to Ireland appreciate.

Many hedgerows were originally planted between two or three hundred years ago to mark the boundary between properties.

Some hedgerows mark much older boundaries, such as those between historic townlands, baronies, or parishes.

Hedgerows consist of a range of native trees, shrubs, and flowers.

Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Holly, Willow, and Rowan are most common, while Hazel and Gorse also occur.

Tall trees like Oak, Ash, Pine, Beech, and in the past, Elm, provide height and perching posts for birds.

In springtime, hedges come alive with blossom, insects, birds, and mammals

Smaller trees like Crab Apple, Damson, Elder, along with scrambling Wild Rose, Honeysuckle, and Blackberry offer plenty of blossom for pollinating insects, and plenty of wild fruit in autumn for wildlife, and for us.

Where natural habitats like woodlands were cleared away for agriculture and building developments, hedgerows may be the only habitat left that supports wildlife.

These precious links therefore act as a network of corridors across the landscape, allowing species to live and move around.

Badgers, foxes, hedgehogs, stoats, and rabbits, along with a range of nesting bird species, all rely on hedgerows for food and shelter.

Bats use hedgerows to navigate along and feed at nighttime, while owls hunt for wood mice along the hedgerow’s grassy margins.

Wildflowers like Primroses, Violets, Vetches, Dandelions, Stitchwort, Hawkweeds, Common Hogweed and Cow Parsley are all important providers of pollen and nectar for bees, bumblebees, beetles, and flies, while the night-time scented Honeysuckle also attracts moths.

In built-up areas, hedgerows are particularly important in providing a ‘green infrastructure’ in the form of corridors of living plants that support a wide range of biodiversity.

This helps bring nature closer to us so that we can continue to enjoy it in our parks, roadsides, and between housing estates.