Boundary Boost
Re-evaluating our hedges
This project enables research, trial and innovation aiming to understand the opportunities in the development of alternative markets; namely green finance, to support land management and contributing towards delivery of national Environmental Improvement Plans goals. Dartmoor Hill Farm Project successfully secured funding awarded from the Environment Agency administered and Defra funded Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF).
Dartmoor is an iconic landscape; elements of which help define its local identity and has reflected the management of fields, farms and moorland through generations. The ambition was to develop a means to incentivise, inform and reward good practice and at a level accessible to most, if not all farmers. Dartmoor represents a predominantly grass-based, livestock-rearing system – hedges and boundaries are common features which virtually all farms include as a fundamental part of their land.
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Big, broad, stout and solid. Stone-faced, shrubby, tree-topped. Earthen core, carbon-rich, biodiverse networks of flora and fauna. Historically or culturally significant.
The core ambitions are all interlinked:
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To develop a relevant survey template that will more accurately assess and record condition, whilst informing future management of a Devon Hedge for use by farmers.
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Identify key locations where hedges and boundaries can maximise environmental benefits which are of value to society, (initially focussed on water and connectivity) through efficient use of existing data.
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Investigate opportunities for a viable ‘top up’ scheme that rewards these benefits, contributing to a local, circular economy by operating at minimal profit.
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Collaboration with farmers to ensure it is practical and realistic; (originally designed to operate in parallel with SFI when available) hence encouraging wider engagement; and with potential buyers seeking tangible, local routes for CSR, ESG or insetting etc.
​As a local scheme, part of the potential appeal revolves around its direct connection with farmers, the distinct landscape character and ability to offer a more relevant or tangible offer reflecting investor/buyer priorities. Using existing knowledge and data, it also aims to identify where greatest gains can be achieved, including between separate but neighbouring ownership for example to reconnect or restore fragmented habitat or manage surface water across a catchment scale.
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Ten farms are involved in field trials, with two of these representing pilot sites to allow more detailed field data to be collected and evaluated for current and potential values. Long term, Dartmoor has many miles of hedge which could offer substantial expansion of a successful scheme – the system would also enable it to be adapted to other regional applications eg. in Protected Landscapes, and to expand the ‘layering’ of wider values, so that it also reflects eg. Carbon sequestration, cultural or heritage values etc.
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As a trial innovation, the project will run until March 2026. Progress updates will be shared via the Dartmoor Hill Farm Project as knowledge sharing amongst farmers and their input is key to its development and functional delivery.
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As a popular theme of interest, the project closely links with the ethos of the Walling Club which supports skills and training to maintain boundaries across Dartmoor, as run by DHFP.
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For further information or interest, please contact hfp@dartmoor.gov.uk
Gathering supporting evidence
As part of the project we aim to better understand the current and potential provision of boundaries, for which our case study farms have been essential.
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To clarify and seek to quantify boundary influence on water, we are running NFM (Natural Flood Management) modelling tools to evaluate these at a field and farm scale. From here it allows certain extrapolation to sub-catchment scale and can identify opportunities to enhance or expand capacity - in line with current on-farm management.
In terms of biodiversity, often this is lacking robust evidence and relies on old or anecdotal records. We have deployed Biophones across all 10 case study farms through spring and summer of 2025 to capture acoustic data. Attached within the hedge line, these record sound for later identification of bird and bat species, working with local provider Wild Connect.​​​​​​​
A Biophone deployed in field trials
The initial results* are a really positive indication with 72 individual species recorded in total, and all farms supporting birds that feature in the 'Birds of Conservation Concern' red or amber lists (www.bto.org).
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*May 2025 results are currently being analysed and reviewed for final confirmation, along with data from July and September.
The Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) supports the government’s goals in the: Environmental Improvement Plan, Green Finance Strategy, Nature Markets Framework, Agricultural Transition Plan. It aims to stimulate private investment and market-based mechanisms that improve and safeguard our domestic natural environment by helping nature projects get ready for investment. Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund
