We all know the proverb ‘good fences make good neighbours’.
For many that might mean the higher and more impenetrable the better, but E Rogers warned in his 1640 letter that first gave life to the idea “but let vs (us) take heed that we make not a high stone wall to keep vs from meeting’.
I know he probably had people in mind when he penned the ‘good fences’ warning later reinforced in Robert Frost’s 1914 poem ‘Mending Wall’. But with biodiversity in massive decline, we should be considering neighbours of every species.
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The low stones walls and nature friendly tree and hedgerows that once crisscrossed our countryside have morphed into high, hard wire mesh fences and walls installed so tight to the ground, not even a rat could nose through.
They are along greenways, around school yards, cutting off business yards and shopping centres and the list goes on.
I can see the sense of having them along roads to stop wildlife taking unnecessary risks, but in some cases creatures are forced across our roads as we have few nature friendly underpasses.
This total segregation of nature from the lives of people and the continual division of nature corridors across the country has to be having an impact on our littlest neighbours.
I know when they A6 was built they stuck in nature crossings about every kilometre or so - but this is not policy and we could have been more generous.
A 2022 report by WIRED, found the global boom in fences is harming wildlife as it impedes migration, genetically isolates threatened species and can even further the spread of disease.
“There is evidence that wildlife numbers have really decreased with the increase in fences. It’s a tragedy,” said Wenjing Xu, a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley, and a coauthor of a 2020 BioScience paper which called fences “the wires that shape the world”.
While the work focused on the issue in the USA, the same problems exist here - and we really need to start talking about it.
Building regulations in Northern Ireland limit the maximum height of a fence or wall to 2 metres in Northern Ireland, whether it is to mark a boundary or not.
If it adjoins to a footpath or road, the height is restricted to 1 metre. If you want to build higher in either situation, you need planning permission. But as far as I can see, you can do what you like at ground level, despite the potential impacts on wildlife and biodiversity.
It just doesn’t seem right.
I know people in towns and cities across Northern Ireland want to keep rodents out of their gardens and there are some people who particularly loathe cats and will do anything to keep them out of their gardens.
But as we build more and more into the countryside, taking up more and more natural space for homes, business parks, hotels, shopping centres and so on - we are pushing nature further and further away.
I’m sure our dwindling hedgehog numbers, pine martens, badgers, foxes and otters don’t want to be where people are - they would prefer to roam in wild areas in peace.
But as those areas get smaller and smaller, we need to think about how we can live alongside them.
That means, leaving spaces under our fences so they can pass through our gardens.
It means keeping nature corridors intact and not cutting into riparian zones, preventing access to vital water sources for the likes of otters. And we need to leave spaces untouched for nature in our local area development plans.
Greenways are a great idea but when they come at the expense of natural habitat, they’re not really that green. We need homes, but when they are granted planning permissions on once green areas where nature thrived, even in cities - we are failing biodiversity.
Governments around the world agreed to set aside 30% of the world’s land areas for nature at COP15 in Montreal in December.
It was a world-wide agreement and doesn’t necessarily mean 30% of Northern Ireland will be set aside for biodiversity. The way our land is currently used would make that impossible unless all our farmers and landowners agreed to it.
According to the RSPB NI, around 75% of Northern Ireland’s countryside is farmed in some way.
Before the introduction of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) in the early 1970s, NI’s agricultural landscape was a mix of arable and livestock farming, supplying varied habitat for farmland wildlife. But much of it now dominated by improved grassland management for dairy, beef and sheep production, with small pockets of cereals.
When it comes to fences, farmers don’t tend to block wildlife out - the farming itself has pushed creatures to the edge of their fields however. I would love to see an end to ripping hedges out and spraying round the edges with harmful pesticides.
But most of all, I’d love to see government (if they ever get back to work) and councils take a look at our nature harming fence and wall habits.
We need to stop blocking nature out - as without thriving ecosystems we’re all done.
No Mow May
No mow May is just around the corner. So whatever you do, give the ride-ons, pushers and plant destroyers a rest for the next month for the sake of our bees.
In October, former DfI Minister John O’Dowd announced a new approach to verge management across the road network to protect the environment.
Instead they promised to focus on “protecting wildlife and promoting biodiversity when managing roadside verges and will support the actions needed to comply with the Climate Change Bill passed by the Assembly earlier this year”.
So this year we should see road verges cut just twice a year to allow plants and other vital food sources for our pollinators to grow.
In some areas I have seen flowers emerge - and that’s what we want. Dandelions are not the enemies you were told they were - they are vital to our bees.
O’Dowd also made a plea to other organisation, to hold back on the cutting.
He said: “It is well known that many other people and organisations cut roadside grass and I would take this opportunity to encourage them to consider if this is necessary, and where possible they should adopt a similar approach to what I have introduced for the benefit of the environment.”
I hope they all take note - some posts I’ve seen on social media would suggest it’s not happening in some areas.
Give the strimmer and pesticides a rest
Give the mower a rest and put your feet up for the next month or so.
The bees need your dandelions and they need you to leave them alone. You could also help them by planting flowers that provide nectar.
That list includes English bluebells, grape hyacinths, primroses, sweet violets, wood anemone, rock cress, purple toadflax, lavender, heather and French marigolds. So when you head to the garden centre this spring, ask which flowers help.
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