Sad state of our hedges

There is concern about our Woodlands, Heathlands and Coast but the appalling state of Hedges, especially around my home in the New Forest seems to be off the conservationists radar.

This poor old tree in the picture is probably several hundreds of years old and has been cut and laid repeatedly during that time but now the hedge is let grow unmanaged and the progression to thin-strip wood is well under way.

Hedges are the equivalent of woodland margins as far as wildlife is concerned and with England having so little woodland hedges have a massive role to play...it's shame all that habitat is lost.