Clearing scrub

chippy78

I am doing some reseeding over the next few years as my place needs some T.L.C. My question is about clearing scrub from ditches. This is mainly briar's and ferns that over time encroached into the fields. Are there restriction's on when I can carry out this work. Does the March 1st to September 1st season like the burning season apply. I'm having trouble finding any helpful info on Dept site. Thanks a mill

_Brian

A lot of the scrub regrows after being pulled, spraying with Grazon90 is great for clearing bryers and the like.

Greengrass1

_Brian wrote: »

A lot of the scrub regrows after being pulled, spraying with Grazon90 is great for clearing bryers and the like.

Sprayed ditches last yr with grazon bryers still dead. Need to get out this week though or next 10 days and get other places sprayed

Buford T. Justice XIX

chippy78 wrote: »

I am doing some reseeding over the next few years as my place needs some T.L.C. My question is about clearing scrub from ditches. This is mainly briar's and ferns that over time encroached into the fields. Are there restriction's on when I can carry out this work. Does the March 1st to September 1st season like the burning season apply. I'm having trouble finding any helpful info on Dept site. Thanks a mill

My understanding is that you can spray the scrub to kill it or pull it up as long as it is in the grazing area. There is no restriction in doing this on normal grassland but i wouldn't be certain if the rules apply to the designated areas grassland.

I did a good bit this spring with a hedgecutter but now i want to spray along/under the wire but i get different answers as to being able to do this.

Is there any dept site that has this info, does anybody know?

(sorry for highjacking the thread, chippy:o)

chippy78

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

My understanding is that you can spray the scrub to kill it or pull it up as long as it is in the grazing area. There is no restriction in doing this on normal grassland but i wouldn't be certain if the rules apply to the designated areas grassland.

I did a good bit this spring with a hedgecutter but now i want to spray along/under the wire but i get different answers as to being able to do this.

Is there any dept site that has this info, does anybody know?

(sorry for highjacking the thread, chippy:o)

I was on the department website but no joy. All the info is about scrub being taken out of SFP claims but no info on what you can and can't do to clear it. I don't want to clear it if I fail a CC inspection and get a fine.

ganmo

I remember reading somethin in the journal ages ago where they said that you could cut hedges etc with a hedgecutter as long as you only cut horizontally.

Birdnuts

ganmo wrote: »

I remember reading somethin in the journal ages ago where they said that you could cut hedges etc with a hedgecutter as long as you only cut horizontally.

No - hedges cannot be cut in any way between the 1st of March and the 1st of September. Its laid out in the current wildlife act. There are exceptions for road safety if the CC deem a hedge to be interfering with driver vision. As for the OP's question. So long as the ditch/hedge itself is left intact and there are no nesting birds interfered with, then briars or ferns etc. can be cleared from grazed area(assuming land is not designated in a way that requires such vegetation to be present).

ganmo

Birdnuts wrote: »

No - hedges cannot be cut in any way between the 1st of March and the 1st of September. Its laid out in the current wildlife act. There are exceptions for road safety if the CC deem a hedge to be interfering with driver vision. As for the OP's question. So long as the ditch/hedge itself is left intact and there are no nesting birds interfered with, then briars or ferns etc. can be cleared from grazed area(assuming land is not designated in a way that requires such vegetation to be present).

not true

Consolidated Version of the Wildlife Acts

SECTION 40 of the WILDLIFE ACT 1976 AS AMENDED by the WILDLIFE (AMENDMENT) ACT 2000

Destruction of vegetation on uncultivated land restricted

40(1) (a) It shall be an offence for a person to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy during the period beginning on the 1st day of March and ending on the 31st day of August in any year, any vegetation growing on any land not then cultivated.

(b) It shall be an offence for a person to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy any vegetation growing in any hedge or ditch during the period mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection.



(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall not apply in relation to

(a) the destroying, in the ordinary course of agriculture or forestry, of any vegetation growing on or in any hedge or ditch;

(b) the cutting or grubbing of isolated bushes or clumps of gorse, furze or whin or the mowing of isolated growths of fern in the ordinary course of agriculture;

(c) the cutting, grubbing or destroying of vegetation in the course of any works being duly carried out for reasons of public health or safety by a Minister of the Government or a body established or regulated by or under a statute;

(cc) the clearance of vegetation in the course of fisheries development works carried out by the Central Fisheries Board or a regional fisheries board in the exercise of its functions under the Fisheries Acts, 1959 to 1999;

(d) the destroying of any noxious weed to which the Noxious Weeds Act, 1936, applies;

(e) the clearance of vegetation in the course of road or other construction works or in the development or preparation of sites on which any building or other structure is intended to be provided;

(f) the removal or destruction of vegetation required by a notice served by the Minister under section 62 (1) of the Act of 1946 to be removed or destroyed;

but this subsection shall not operate to exclude from subsection (1) of this section anything done by burning.

(3) The Minister may request from the person concerned details of any works carried out under subsection (2)(c) and such details shall be furnished to the Minister by that person together with a statement of the public health or safety factors involved.

(4) In any proceedings taken in respect of a contravention of this section consisting of the doing of any act, it shall be a good defence to prove that the doing of that act was necessary for the purpose of extinguishing or preventing the spread of a fire while it was in progress or for the purpose of saving human life or was necessary in any other emergency in respect of which that act was an appropriate measure

taken from here

Farmer

To me, it looks like you're both in agreement in that it's the vegetation growing in the hedge/ditch rather than the hedge itself

Birdnuts

Farmer wrote: »

To me, it looks like you're both in agreement in that it's the vegetation growing in the hedge/ditch rather than the hedge itself

Yeah - I thought they had updated the guidance on this but they are still only proposed changes having checked the legislation earlier today myself on the NPWS website, so the 2000 act mentioned by Ganmo still applies. I guess it makes sense to contact the NPWS directly to clarify exactly how the agri exemptions apply in terms of allowable actions as the act itself isn't very clear on the matter eg. does it mean if in the course of cutting silage etc. some of the vegetation in the hedge is damaged or cut?? etc.