I SEE the hedge smashing season is here again, hedges cut within an inch of their lives and serve no useful purpose than being boundary markers.

They certainly aren’t of any benefit to wildlife being useless for nesting and not providing food to speak of.

Some farmers/contractors do make a tidy job where as others smash the hedges to smithereens and never tidy up afterwards, of course, that would mean getting out of their cozy cabs and using those useful appendages called arms and legs!

It seems no job can be executed these days without the use of some machine of some sort - it’s a pity someone hasn’t developed one for collecting all the litter that plagues our countryside as councils seem incapable of organizing gangs to collect it by hand - horror of horrors!

Back to the hedges; I can understand hedges being trimmed on the road side for safety reasons but there is absolutely no need to cut the height below ten feet or so and the field side should be left untouched as well as ten feet of headland around the field, this would provide much needed feeding and breeding areas for birds such as grey partridge and finches, which as we know, are fast disappearing due to modern intensive farming practices.

It is so easy to jump in one of today’s juggernaut tractors with equally large implements in tow and bomb up and down the field or spray obnoxious poisonous chemicals in all directions, killing every insect whether it’s beneficial or otherwise, no wonder bees and butterflies are fast disappearing.

So let’s have a natural countryside and NOT a manicured one, after all, manicured hedges belong in gardens.

COLIN FOUNTAIN

Moreton Dorchester

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