Financial contribution for recovery Maasheggen

Last month, municipality Land van Cuijk started the restoration of hawthorn hedges and (pollarded) trees along roads in the Maasheggen area. For this project, Brabants Landschap received a contribution of € 38,000 from the Dinamo Fund late last year. A very welcome contribution to the project Restoration Plan Maasheggen that had previously been initiated by the former municipality of Boxmeer.

The restoration plan is now entering its 3rd phase. For this plan, the municipality has also received a contribution of nearly €19,000 from the Nature Subsidy Scheme of the province of North Brabant. That contribution is for hedge restoration only, not tree restoration.
Restoration of hedgerows - over a total length of more than 3 kilometers - involves clearing (sometimes centuries-old) hawthorn bushes that are in danger of suffocating under invasive species such as bramble, hops, wood elder and blackthorn. In many cases this involves planting in new hawthorn bushes. This work is carried out partly by machine and partly by hand. Volunteers from Stichting Landschapsbeheer Boxmeer (SlaBox) are also involved in the implementation.

At the same time, old pollarded trees are also restored and young trees are trimmed in such a way that they can develop into new pollarded trees. Where necessary, new trees are replanted. Older, well-maintained pollard trees help define the characteristic image of Maasheggen and the hollows in these trees are of great importance to vulnerable species such as the little owl and collared redstart.