The Great Big Dorset Hedge Marches on

With 500 metres of hedgerows planted on Hurst farm at Moreton and 4 km planted in a dozen other farms, our volunteers have made a huge impact this winter. Now we will return to mainly hedgerow surveys and by the time we are in April there will be loads of them all over the county.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes there are dramatic changes afoot.

· I aim to pull back from the detail and give my core team of contractors more and more responsibility. I want to enable other things to creep back into my life.

· Dorset CPRE trustees will make a momentous decision on whether their funding of GBDH can become more substantial, more steady and more sustained.

· Dorset Council will launch its Nature Recovery Strategy, where hedgerows are listed as one of thirteen priorities (and of course where GBDH is cited as an example of nature recovery in practice).

At the national level the hedgerow drama should focus on DEFRA who have just announced that hedgerow surveys will not be funded in the Sustainable Farming Incentive offer for 2026. This penny-pinching is a set-back for the project, and by the end of March I fully expect to know whether the NFU intend to press for its reinstatement now, next year or not at all. Tom Bradshaw, President of the NFU, had said that the SFI 2026 offer (as a whole) “appears to strike the right balance between simplifying the process and maintaining flexibility, while still retaining preferable actions for farmers and growers.” I have had to challenge him to justify that statement on the specific subject of hedgerows and I have the NFU county chair and a few others backing that stance. I cannot expect DEFRA to do a U-turn this year but I can make sure the NFU consider pressing for one.

John Calder

GBDH Project Manager