Fence-ology

Read an interesting article on the ecology of fences. It's a neglected subject and needs more attention.
It's no surprise to me that fences have a part to play in the natural scheme.  They keep animals in or out so that one side may be grazed and manured, the other not - which will have long-term implications. They divide the cultivated from the uncultivated, the 'improved' from the natural,  the tame from the the wild.  They aren't as romantic as walls and hedges but they equally  act  as  vantage points for birds -  to  sing, call and watch;  corridors for small mammals to follow, opportunities for plants to cling, climb; and hug.  Old rotting fence posts attract  lichen and fungi and woodboring beetles whose larvae attract woodpeckers;  badgers burrow beneath, foxes squeeze through.

This particular fence  is aimed at deterring the coastal ponies from getting too near the cliff edge. Orchids flower on the seaward side.

Worldwide,  fences can massively differentiate ecologies as with the Australian dingo fences erected to protect livestock from wild dogs. 
"The absence of dingoes, a top predator, from one side of the fence means that populations of prey species like kangaroos can explode, causing categorical shifts in plant composition and even depleting the soil of nutrients."


"The U.S.-Mexico border wall... has genetically isolated populations of large mammals such as bighorn sheep, leading to population declines and genetic isolation."

Where a long-standing fence has been removed animals have been found to behave as if it were still there, retaining the tracks and routes determined by its presence.

See here for more about fence ecology.


And this from 1944 is not to be missed: Roy Rogers and Trigger, Don't Fence Me In.