February

I have been delighted by the responses to my first monthly musings on hedges. Thank you. In my defence the initial blog was never intended to be all encompassing so I’m “hedging my bets” (pun intended!) and doing a follow up to acknowledge the excellent comments made.

In readiness for all anticoagulant rodenticide purchases being restricted July onwards to their use inside and around buildings only, the latest UK Rodenticide Stewardship annual report includes for the first time an explanation specific to rodent pest control of what constitutes a ‘building’.

Although farmer clusters have been going in England since 2012 and have been immensely successful (with over 100 connected to GWCT now established) unfortunately in Scotland we have not seen this same level realised. So why is this, and what can we do to kick-start their uptake in Scotland?

Many parts of the English rolling landscape are criss-crossed by hedgerows, which if one stops and looks provide an interesting perspective on the history of the landscape being observed.