Hedges and hedgerow workshop Saturday

Some of the best ideas in natural resource conservation are also the oldest: Save some for the next generation, replant the trees you take, and feed the soil and it will feed you forever.

Another old idea is gaining new ground: Multifunctional hedgerows. Used for millennia in European rural landscapes, a hedgerow is a mixed planting of shrubs and sometimes trees that can provide an attractive property boundary, privacy, a windbreak, a durable living fence for livestock, habitat for birds and pollinators, and more.

UCD and local landscape experts will showcase hedgerows, and their uses and design considerations.

The workshop will start at 9 a.m. and conclude by noon, depending on audience questions. Attendees are welcome to bring photos of potential project sites on their property if they wish. A significant portion of the workshop time will be given to a sample design process, with plenty of time for questions and ideas, to help people considering how a hedgerow might benefit them and their property. There will be open discussion of how to select plants, spacing and other factors.

UCD is a local, non-regulatory government agency charged with helping residents and landowners in natural resource conservation. More about UCD can be found at www.ucdwa.org.

Questions and RSVPs may be directed by email to dan@ucdwa.org or by phone at 509-493-1936.

Directions to the workshop: From the Hood River Bridge, drive on SR-14 1.7 miles west, just past the White Salmon River bridge. Turn right on Cook-Underwood Road, and drive 1.4 miles up the hill, to School House Road, with the fire station on the corner. Turn left. The community center is the first large building on the right, just past the post office. (Approaching from the west, drive SR-14 13.7 miles east of the Wind River bridge at Home Valley.)