Fencerows: A lost practice worth reviving?

Looking out across Central Illinois you will see open fields stretching for miles with few breaks in between fields.  It may even be difficult to tell where one field ends and another begins.  This is not what farmland in Illinois always looked like, though.  Our agricultural landscape used to be intersected by fencerows to mark property lines or field boundaries.  In the last 50 years, hundreds of miles of fencerows have been removed from farmland to make farming more efficient and maximize tillable acres.  This blog post will explore the forgotten practice of fencerows, the negative consequences of removing them, and why landowners should consider strategically reinstalling them.

What are fencerows and why did we remove them?

Fencerows—also referred to as hedgerows—were the uncultivated strips of land between farm fields and properties.  They were used to demarcate the boundaries of fields and were often filled with trees, shrubs, and native plants.  They were a common sight throughout Illinois up until the 1970s when farmers began removing fencerows to maximize tillable acres, farm more efficiently, and accommodate increasingly larger equipment.  Many fencerows were also removed because they contained Osage orange trees, which have extensive root systems that can interfere with tile drainage and hinder crop production.  Now you will be hard pressed to find fencerows between many fields, especially in areas with highly productive land.  While farmers may have been able to add a few more rows of cropland with the removal fencerows, the negative impacts would not become clear until decades later.

What are the negative consequences of removing fencerows?

With the loss of fencerows also came the loss of important wildlife habitat.  Wildlife thrived in these unmanaged areas, especially upland birds, like pheasants and quail.  Fencerows provided woody edge cover and vegetation that are crucial to supporting wildlife.  My grandmother once told me that when she was a young woman my farmer grandfather would frequently bring home pheasants that he shot while working the fields.  The machinery would spook them out of their hiding places in the fencerows and he would be ready for them. 

Now it is incredibly rare to see pheasants in our part of Central Illinois.  In fact, pheasant and quail populations have been in a steep decline since the 1970s.  It was reported that during the 1960s and 70s over 1 million pheasants were harvested by hunters each year.  In 2000, this number had declined to only 158,000 birds.  It is the same story with quail, seeing a decline from 2 million harvested per year in the 1970s to only 271,500 in 2000.  And these population declines have only continued over the last 20 years.  A 2020 report from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources found that less than 30,000 pheasants were harvested that year.

Declines in pheasant and quail populations also have trickle down effects that are felt throughout the food chain.  Birds are natural predators of many insect pests that can damage crops.  A study from the University of California showed that bird foraging reduced the amount of insect pest damage in alfalfa by over 33%. 

Aside from the impacts to wildlife, removing fencerows has led to increased soil erosion from both wind and water.  Fencerows served as natural barriers and windbreaks between fields.  Their removal has contributed to the dust storms that have been seen in Illinois both this year and last.  While there are many factors that influence where and when dust storms can happen (and many practices that farmers can use to reduce their risk of soil erosion), it is clear that there are many areas of Illinois that would benefit from reinstalling fencerows as windbreaks.

Why and where should I consider reinstalling fencerows?

The population declines seen with pheasants and quail do not need to be permanent.  Farmers and landowners have seen that when given suitable habitat, the birds will return to their native ranges. Reinstalling some of the fencerows that were removed would provide habitat for native wildlife—like quail, pheasants, rabbits, turkey, and deer—that could be hunted.  Studies have also shown that putting just 10 percent of an agricultural field into vegetated strips and field borders can reduce soil loss by 95 percent. Additionally, vegetated buffer strips near waterways can help reduce nutrient runoff significantly—reductions in nitrates by 72 percent and phosphorus by 77 percent have been seen.

Not every field or property needs to have every mile of fencerows reinstalled, though.  Farmers and landowners should consider targeting areas that are more susceptible to erosion and nutrient loss, like highly sloped fields and areas near waterways.  Farmers should also focus in on the areas on their farm that are lower yielding. Taking some of that land out of production can actually be more profitable than farming it, especially if that land is then enrolled in a federal cost-share program, like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and is receiving a rental payment.

There are also some small changes that can be made to existing field borders and ditches.  One of the best things a landowner can do to help bird populations is to avoid mowing during their nesting season (April 15 – August 1).  Leaving grassy areas unmowed will give these birds the cover they need to hatch and rear their young.  It is also helpful to only mow a small portion (1/4 – 1/3 of the total area) of the habitat area at a time so that there is always some cover available.  Landowners should also consider converting areas with non-native grasses (usually cool-season grasses like fescue, brome, bluegrass, and reed-canary grass) to more diverse native plantings that include both grasses and forbs.

The removal of fencerows across Illinois has had significant, and often unseen, consequences for our environment, from declining wildlife populations to increased soil erosion. By strategically reintroducing fencerows, particularly in vulnerable areas, landowners can not only restore vital habitat for native wildlife but also mitigate soil loss and improve water quality.  This forgotten practice offers a sustainable path forward for Illinois agriculture, fostering both ecological health and long-term farm viability.