Tending the Edges: The Benefits of Hedgerows on Bay Area Working Lands
A Resource for Land Stewards To Understand the Benefits of Implementing Hedgerows
What Are Hedgerows?
Hedgerows are single or multiple rows of trees, shrubs, forbs and/or grasses planted along the edges of fields in working landscapes to support one or more goals. Land stewards — producers, agricultural workers, landowners, and others — can support regional ecological health, provide wildlife habitat, sequester carbon, improve agricultural production, and more by strategically tending the edges.
The Importance of Hedgerows
Hedgerows are just one of the many ways land stewards can participate in carbon farm practices. Carbon Farming is a full-farm approach to agriculture which involves planning and
implementing management practices that are known to maximize the rate at which CƝ is sequestered from the atmosphere and converted to plant material and soil organic matter and/or implementing practices that reduce on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In addition to increasing wildlife biodiversity, improving soil health, providing shelter for cattle and other wildlife, and providing an eco-friendly windbreak solution, hedgerows have many other benefits. The structures help conserve local nature and offer a green alternative to land stewardship.
Featuring beautiful artwork from Laurie Mahan Sawyer, this resource provides an overview of hedgerow planting benefits and related conservation practices and resources for land stewards. Although this publication focuses on Marin County, many of the concepts apply to other parts of the Bay Area.
Learn more about the benefits of hedgerows here!
Artwork by Laurie Sawyer, publication by Marin Resource Conservation District & Partners.
The Resource Conservation Network gathers and shares the stories and ideas from its partners and colleagues. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the RCDs managing this publication.
