THE HEDGEROWS of England are part of the country's character, heritage and history.
But with 2,200 miles of them disappearing every year, their future is in danger.
Yet new legislation now imposes duties on planning authorities to safeguard and collect "important" hedgerows.
But that responsibility entails the huge task of identification. The challenge is being taken up today by the Council for the Protection of Rural England which is calling on country-lovers to join in their "Domesday Book" survey of threatened hedgerows.
We wish the project well and urge readers to support it. For our hedgerows are a national treasure and environmental resource - a vast, but endangered nature reserve - that we risk losing if we take it for granted.
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