HRW3 - Maintain or establish hedgerow trees
Payment
You’ll receive £10 per 100 metres for both sides of an eligible hedgerow per year.
Aim
This action’s aim is that you maintain or establish hedgerow trees to help provide:
- habitat for wildlife
- carbon storage benefits
Where You Can Do This Action
You can only do this action on both sides of an eligible hedgerow. You cannot enter one side of a hedgerow into this action.
This means you must have management control of both sides of the hedgerow and adjacent land. The only exception to this is if it’s a roadside hedgerow – you can enter that hedgerow into this action if you can meet the requirements explained below. Read the information about management control (section 4.1.1).
You can choose what total length of eligible hedgerows to enter into this action.
Read section 4.1.3 to find out how we define an eligible hedgerow for SFI.
Other Land Management Actions or Options You Can Do with HRW3
The table below sets out which other SFI actions, CS management options, ES revenue options and SFI pilot standards you can do in land parcels with eligible boundaries entered into HRW3.
Table 13: Actions or options that can be done with HRW3
| Scheme | Action or option codes that can be done with HRW3 |
|---|---|
| SFI 2023 | All SFI actions |
| CS | All CS management options, including BE3 (management of hedgerows) |
| ES | All ES revenue options, apart from boundary options |
| SFI pilot | All SFI pilot standards, except the SFI pilot hedgerows standard |
What to do
You must make sure there’s an average of at least 1 hedgerow tree per 100m over the total length of hedgerows entered into this action. This means some 100m lengths can contain no trees, as long as you meet this average.
You can do this action by:
- maintaining existing trees growing within the hedgerow
- establishing new hedgerow trees
To establish a new hedgerow tree, you must either:
- select an existing sapling in the hedgerow with a single straight stem
- plant a new sapling – you can apply for CS Capital Grants to plant a hedgerow tree (TE1) and protect it with a tree guard (TE6)
You must identify each newly established hedgerow tree by tagging it or using another method to identify it clearly, so it can be avoided when managing the hedgerow.
You can include dead and dying trees when counting how many hedgerow trees are in a given length of hedgerow. This decaying wood can provide a habitat for invertebrates, nesting birds and bats. This does not include newly planted tree saplings that die before they become established.
You must not do the following to the hedgerow trees that are being maintained or established to complete this action:
- damage them
- cut them, unless there’s a clear need – for example, to prolong the life of the tree, for health and safety reasons (such as removing branches that pose a risk to people), or because it’s a tradition in the local landscape (such as coppicing or pollarding willow)
When to do it
By the end of your SFI agreement, you must have done this action so it meets the requirements explained above.
How to do it
It’s up to you how you complete this action, as long as you do it in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim.
You may find it helpful to read the voluntary guidance on how to maintain or establish hedgerow trees, but you do not have to follow it.
What evidence to keep
You should keep evidence to show what you’ve done to complete this action. This will help if it’s not clear that you’ve completed the action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim. You must supply this evidence if we ask for it.
This evidence could include photographs and other documentation to show what you’ve done to complete this action. If you choose to take photographs, read the guidance on how to take photographic evidence (annex A).
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: SFI Handbook for the SFI 2023 Offer