Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Hedgerows, Carbon and Biodiversity: Hedgerows Ireland

Dr. Alan Moore:

The EPA BioForest project recommended a minimum setback from new forestry plantation in order to allow hedgerows to flourish where they are being impinged by new forestry. A distance of 7 m was recommended, but currently a distance of 3 m is being applied. One recommendation is that the EPA study is implemented. The effect of the shorter distance is that hedgerows are being encroached and obliterated by new coniferous forestation.