Tolworth Court Farm hedge survey and public walk
During a wet Sunday morning seven of us met at Tolworth Court Farm to survey the hedgerows. We used a standard methodology, as well as recording sheets provided to us during a training session at the Lower Moles office (Horton Country Park) earlier this Autumn. This required a qualitative analysis of the hedgerow from 'soup to nuts' i.e.: measurements of height, length, depth, canopy cover, species, evidence of nutrient enrichment, management, presence or absence of features including banks, fencing or 'nodes'. We found that the hedgerows were: species rich (ash, oak, willow, birch, alder, hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, dogwood and field maple) absent in invasive species; surprisingly absent in sycamore; recently managed, evidenced by the brush cutting of brambles; recently planted or 'gapped' (by field maples and dogwood); exhibiting some coppicing of willows; and as we reached the end of the first field, increasingly 'unimproved' with a marked abs...