We were delighted with the turn out for our first workshop of the year which was a day long 'Introduction to Hedge Laying' with Tutor Steve Bass of Hedgerows Ireland, which took place on 22nd February 2025 with support from Julius Silvan, CELT Tutor & Forester.
Hedge laying is an ancient skill, involving a vital regenerative and rejuvenative process that keeps a native hedgerow young and vigorous indefinitely. It is considered the optimum form in the management for our native hedgerows, and it is hard to overstate its value in preserving habitats for our threatened wildlife and protecting Ireland's biodiversity. In the absence in Ireland of native tree cover, which was reduced from 80% in the early formations of the Island to barely 1% by the 1900s, standing today at only 2%, our native hedgerows are recognised as playing a vital life line in sustaining native biodiversity todate.
This one-day introduction course was aimed at novice hedge layers and anyone seeking to gain more experience. Training included Pleaching, Binding, Hinge cutting, Building & Staking a Hedge, which also involved a safety briefing, and an introduction to the concept and benefits of hedge laying, including practical demonstrations and hands on practice in the skills of hedge laying on a specially selected hedge on an active working farm.
The location for the training was at CELT HQ, the Slieve Aughty Center, Kylebrack, Loughrea, Co. Galway, where CELT are working in partnership with the Center on a new educational nature restoration, biodiversity and afforestation project, devised with the assistance of the Community Foundation Ireland funding under the guidance of Forestor Julius Silvan.
Our strategic educational partnership with the Slieve Aughty Center aims to build on the ecological and biodiversity surveys of the area, and delivering on the potential of this site to create a new educational space and initiate an exciting new nature restoration project for the region. Over the coming years our project aim is to work with professional foresters, and other specialist land management experts at the Centre, in the restoration of critical wetlands, biodiversity, hedgerows, and agroforestry, and to create an exemplar model and center of excellence for nature restoration and bioregional education for the region.
Hedgerow Ireland Tutor was the excellent Steve Bass, who has a wealth of experience working on Hedgerow management and many years working in the area of Hedgerow Education. He has a Chainsaw Safety Certificate and provides a service for both community groups as well as farmers in agri-environment schemes and also takes on private contracts. He has laid over 800 metres of hedges in Ireland covering all counties.
NPTC AO20 Certified since 2008.
For more information on the fantastic work of Hedgerows Ireland please visit .. https://hedgerows.ie/
We are grateful to the support from Hedgerows Ireland, Irish Environmental Network and Community Foundation Ireland who enabled us to host this event.
For more information on all our current events please visit https://www.celtnet.org/events
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