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ARCHIVED - Hedgerow research continues as measures are sought to reduce flooding and protect the Mar Menor
Hedges help prevent erosion, retain carbon in the soil, preserve biodiversity and house pollinating insects
It was over three years ago, when a period of eutrophication led to the water in the Mar Menor turning green, that agronomists and ecologists first began to be taken seriously by the authorities in their campaign for hedgerows to be planted in the farmland of the Campo de Cartagena, and following the flooding caused by the gota fría storm last month and the resulting deterioration of water quality in the lagoon the idea is again receiving a good deal of attention.
In 2016 the main advantage being put forward of hedgerows was their capacity to reduce soil erosion, thus limiting the amount of fertilizers and nitrates running off the irrigated farmland into the Mar Menor. The nutrients concerned, it ought to be remembered, are held largely responsible for the alteration of the marine environment in the lagoon over the last few decades, a process which has been accelerated by the spread of urban development along the coast and the increase in the amount of irrigated farmland which followed the completion of the Tajo-Segura water supply canal in 1979.
However, like many other proposals to protect the Mar Menor and to limit disastrous floods in coastal towns like those which hit Los Alcázares in December 2016 and September 2019, the hedgerow plan barely got off the ground. Some vegetation was planted to protect the sand dunes of San Pedro del Pinatar, and some "green lines" were planted to provide environmentally friendly lines of vegetation along roadsides, but most of the Campo de Cartagena continues to be dominated by the vast open fields suited to large-scale intensive crop farming, where irrigation pipes hundreds of metres long can be laid without interruption and tractors and sowing machines plant, spray and collect the crops in the most efficient way possible as companies strive, understandably, to maximize profits.
The campaign for hedges is far from over, though, and a study being carried out by the Imida and Cebas research institutes and the ecologists of ANSE is currently investigating how hedgerows not only counteract erosion but also help to retain carbon in the soil, enriching it and preventing it from being released into the atmosphere as it is when land is ploughed.
In addition, of course, hedgerows are an important contributor to maintaining biodiversity, acting as a natural habitat for birds and insects which variously act as predators, pollinators and anti-parasite agents.
In the latest research experiments are being conducted in a number of locations throughout the Region of Murcia, including the southern end of the Mar Menor, Mazarrón, Águilas and Jumilla, with hedges being planted between plots of land and the effects being scrutinized in terms of a range of parameters. 19,000 plants belonging to 60 species have been planted alongside leaf vegetables in the Campo de Cartagena, ecological plantations in Mazarrón, fruit trees in Jumilla and traditional Mediterranean agriculture establishments in Águilas, with the species chosen including esparto grass, aromatic herbs such as rosemary and lavender, wild roses and even small trees as efforts are made to endow the countryside with diversity and provide nesting zones for birds.
In some ways, the disastrous flooding of last month has come at a good time for the new hedges, as it put them to one of the sternest tests imaginable. One of the researchers is quoted in regional La Verdad as likening the effect of the torrential rain on the plants to “putting 40 trucks on a bridge to test its strength”, and the results have been very encouraging, with only the most recently planted barriers having been washed away.
In the countryside of the UK the loss of hedges has long been lamented as being detrimental to the landscape and the land in many ways, as an art which developed over millennia since Man first planted hedges as a barrier to enclose cereal crops in the Stone Age, around 5,000 years ago gradually dies out. Many of the hedges which still survive in Britain are thought to be at least 700 years old, although the art of maintaining them is now understood by only a few.
In Murcia, there is less of a tradition in hedging, and in this day and age it would be a triumph if modern agricultural concerns could be persuaded to introduce the practice. However, if the results of the current research are convincing enough, there is an outside chance that they could be legally obliged to do so in order to make their activities compatible with flood protection and the preservation of the marine environment of the Mar Menor.
Images: ANSE and Murcia Today
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