We are asking you to support and come to

LEINSTER HOUSE in DUBLIN on WEDNESDAY 15th FEBURARY 12pm midday.

We will together deliver a letter to the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue demanding action to save and enhance our hedgerows.

The letter is signed by leading environmental experts and representatives from a powerful alliance of countryside organisations. These include beekeepers, nature lovers, hunters, farmers and fishermen.

We are all are united by frustration that our countryside is being irreparably damaged due to failed government policy which is completely out of touch with all current knowledge about climate and biodiversity breakdown.

The Department of Agriculture currently allows a landowner to destroy up to half a kilometre of hedgerow without any environmental assessment or permission. This rule, along with very poor systems of oversight is responsible for an estimated loss of up to 3000km of hedgerow annually in Ireland. Many of these hedges are centuries old and are part of our rich heritage. Our local authorities are also responsible for very poor practice around hedgerow destruction and poor treatment.

Charlie McConalogue has the power to REDUCE the 500m REMOVAL LIMIT with IMMEDIATE EFFECT. Powerful vested interests don’t want him to do this, and he won’t-unless People Power forces his hand.

We are also demanding PROPER PAYMENTS for the PRESERVATION and improvement of EXISTING HEDGEROWS. The new CAP farm payments which have just been agreed, have missed a massive opportunity to pay farmers for quality hedgerows. This is crazy given the role that bigger, taller healthier hedges play in storing carbon and protecting our threatened wildlife.

So please come along and show your support. Bring a placard if you like. Some ideas for captions might include:

• ‘Actions not words Minister McConalogue’

• ‘Change the CRAZY rules NOW’

• ‘Hedgerows do EVERYTHING!’

• ‘Hedgerows are our rainforests Minister’

• ‘Pay farmers for good hedgerows-new CAP payments are CRAP!’

• ‘Stop the destruction-- 3000 km gone every year- It’s madness!’

We have been guaranteed top media coverage for the event.

Together we can do this!

Our Disappearing Hedgerows

Charlie McConalogue TD,

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine,

Leinster House,

Kildare Street,

Dublin 2.

Thursday 2nd February 2023

Dear Minister McConalogue,

We the undersigned represent a broad alliance of organisations brought together by a common goal, to protect and enhance our vital hedgerow corridors.

Our groups span a wide spectrum of interests: farmers and landowners, fishermen and hunters, environmentalists and beekeepers. We are united by concern and frustration. Because of inaction and mismanagement by policy makers, our beautiful landscape is being steadily destroyed by the ongoing unjustified removal of thousands of kilometres of hedgerows annually.

The benefits of hedgerows are legion. In addition to their value for agriculture these include: massive sequestration of carbon, our single most important reservoir for biodiversity and wildlife including pollinators, flood control, pollution filtration and nutrient buffering, landscape definition and beauty.

Representatives from our groups have been lobbying Government ministers and the Department of Agriculture for 3 years to amend the rules around hedgerow removal and to simultaneously reward landowners for maintaining good quality hedgerows through farm payment schemes. These recommendations have been  ignored. Reviews of the rules have been promised but with no dates or terms of reference. The new CAP scheme payments have missed key opportunities to incentivise good hedgerow management.

Unfortunately, and against all current  research advice, upwards of 3000 kilometres of hedgerows are still being removed annually by a small number of landowners who are facilitated under the current Department of Agriculture regulations to destroy up to half a kilometre of hedgerow without any assessment or permission. Research also shows that less than one third of remaining hedgerows are in good condition.

What is needed now is firstly an immediate reduction of the current 500 metre hedgerow removal limit pending the outcome of the promised review by the Department of Agriculture. Secondly, farm payments should reward landowners for maintaining and improving the quality of existing hedgerows as well as the planting of new hedges.

Representatives of the undersigned are now requesting an early meeting with you to discuss these proposals in more detail.

Yours sincerely.

Elaine McGoff, An Taisce

Sadhbh O'Neill, researcher in climate and environmental policy,

• Ann Lonergan, National Advisory Committee Irish Countrywomen’s Association,
• Aoife Nic Giolla Coda, Native Irish Honey Bee Society,
• Donal Lehane, Federation of Irish Beekeepers,
• Fergal Anderson, Talamh Beo,
• Brendan Dunford, Burrenlife Project,
• Donal Sheehan, The Bride Project,
• Niamh Roche, Bat Conservation Ireland,
• Derek Cagney, Munster Regional Trout Angling Council,
• Theresia Guschlbauer, SuirCan Environmental CLG,
• Sean Owens, Irish Doctors for the Environment,
• James Norton, Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association,
• Doug McMillan, Green Restoration Ireland,
• John Diamond, Kieran Hanrahan, Sea Angling Ireland,
• Manchan Magan journalist,author,
• Colin Stafford Johnson wildlife cameraman and film maker,
• Mick Kelly, GIY Waterford,
• John Butler, National Association of Regional Game Councils,
• Padraic Fogarty, Irish Wildlife Trust,
• Joe Gowran, Woodlands of Ireland,
• Alan Moore, Hedgerows Ireland.

Dr Alan Moore,

Sladagh,

Fethard,

Co. Tipperary