Recent research confirms what our farming ancestors have known for centuries about hedges (树篱). They conserve precious soil by acting as windbreaks and absorbing rainwater that would otherwise wash it from the fields. And hedges store carbon, putting them in the front line of our bi d to tackle the climate crisis.

However, hedges have had a tough time in the poor countryside, with farmers encouraged to tear them down in pursuit of maximum production and larger field s to accommodate ever-larger machinery. What’s more, some hedges have been ignored. If left to their own devices, they’ll eventually become a line of trees. Some hedges each year lose their structures and fail to fulfil the primary duty as a barrier. Around a half of the nation’s hedges have disappeared in the past century.

There are signs that “the tide is turning”. The search for net zero has aroused many organizations’ interest in the humble hedge’s role as a carbon sink. The Climate Change Committee is recommending a 40 percent increase in hedges: an additional 200,000 km. Such recommendations are starting to drive policy. Cash-pressed farmers will be encouraged to create new hedges and improve their management of existing ones under the new Environmental Land Management Schemes, which will replace many of the existing agricultural support payments in coming years. Meanwhile, initiatives such as Close the Gap, led by the Tree Council, is providing funding and support to plug the gaps in existing hedges with new planting. There’s even an app to help time-pressed farmers do a quick survey to spot where their hedges need some help.

This is a good time for hedges. Take some of the most pressing challenges facing the countryside, and indeed, the world as a whole — the climate crisis, soil erosion (侵蚀), insect attack and wider biodiversity loss — and hedges are part of the solution.

It’s in Your Hands

Feeding bread to the ducks is a fond pastime for many of us, reminding us of happy childhood trips to the local park. 【小题1】 Eating it can cause our feathered friends to develop a condition called Angel Wing, which is when too much bread makes birds’ feathers grow too quickly. This additional weight puts a strain on their muscles, causing their wings to twist and drop open.

“Angel Wing can be cured if we reach birds before it has developed too severely,” says Caroline Simpson, a trustee of UK charity Swan Lifeline, “【小题2】” Over the last 20 years UK charity Swan Lifeline has rescued and treated more than 30,000 birds. Adult swans can develop heart disease by eating much bread, so it’s important that we do our best to prevent this by feeding them the right kind of food.

【小题3】 Rotten bread at the bottom of rivers and lakes allows bacteria to breed, spreading disease and attracting rats and other pests to our waterways, which can result in the presence of a mould (霉菌) called Aspergillus. It has the potential to kill waterfowl and other wildlife if it gets into their lungs.

【小题4】 Definitely not. Wild Things Swan & Duck Food has launched the “Better than Bread” Campaign to highlight the risk of a calorific diet to water birds. The campaign advises that there are much healthier alternatives to bread, such as specially developed feeds. They can float on the water surface, so birds can enjoy every last bit. 【小题5】

Humans need homes as safe havens to protect themselves from bad weather and threats from other animals and creatures. Birds also need habitats for survival.

Yet, climate change has posed a great threat to their habitats. To solve such habitat problems, China has recently recognized 1,140 sites as important breeding, wintering grounds, and migratory stops, with most of them located in wetlands. Wetlands include coastal areas with a water depth of no more than 6 meters at low tide, but exclude rice-grown fields and expanses of water used for aquaculture (水产业) and artificial breeding. Referred to as the “kidneys of the Earth” and as “species gene pools”, wetlands conserve clean water, maintain biodiversity, help contain floods and prevent droughts, reported China Daily.

To protect China’s wetlands, a law was introduced in 2022 to restrict construction at important national wetlands and ban harmful activities including land reclamation (土地开垦), overgrazing (过度放牧) , overharvesting and the discharging of wastewater. Since these measures have gone into effect, more birds have been spotted wintering in the nation’s wetlands. In February, the forestry bureau in Hunan province reported 72 species of water birds that spent this past winter at Dongting Lake, a region that stretches across several cities. Mallards and Eurasian cranes are among the birds which stay at the lake. Black-faced spoonbills (黑面琵鹭 ) , a rare and endangered species, were also spotted at Dongting after an absence of five years. The number of spoonbills has increased from 300 in the 1980s to more than 5,000 presently, according to the National Forestry and Grassland.