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Can you trim garden hedges in France in September?
Failure to take account of nesting birds can lead to significant penalties
Published
As the summer comes to a close many gardens are ready for a tidy-up, but the end of the nesting period does not necessarily mean that all birds have disappeared from your hedge.
The Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (France’s environmental and wildlife protection NGO - LPO) said that young birds can continue venturing out of nests until the end of September.
This includes blackbirds, thrushes, owls and other garden birds that may be found on or around hedges as they start to become more independent.
This means that caution is still required before reaching for the hedge trimmer.
A five-minute check before a trim
Before starting to trim, a quick check is useful to be safe. Walk along the hedge slowly and look closely at the foliage:
Watch for young birds repeatedly entering or leaving the same spot.
Listen for persistent cries or calls from young birds.
Look for a nest tucked into dense branches.
If any of these are noticed, and especially if you see a bird returning to a particular section, it is better to leave the area alone and postpone the trimming for another day.
It is important to note that if you find a young bird on the ground it does not mean it has been abandoned, as its parents are often nearby, still feeding it.
The LPO generally recommends avoiding hedge trimming from March 16 to August 31, and while there is no national ban on trimming during this period, the nests of protected bird species (owls, robins, wrens, shallows among them) are protected regardless of the season.
More than that, destroying the nest of a protected bird species is a criminal offence in France and can lead to up to three years' imprisonment and a €150,000 fine under Article L.415-3 of the Environmental Code (although this is the maximum possible punishment and is not applied to its entirety in every case).
In any case, the LPO recommends November and December as the ideal months for hedge trimming, noting that it is better to allow vegetation to develop naturally as much as possible and, when you do trim, to leave some of the trimmed wood lying on the ground.
However, it does show that a few minutes of observation can save you from damaging a nest and ultimately from a serious legal problem.
