Looks like I stirred up quite a pot with my reply last night and just now got a chance to read the replies. Everyone has their opinion of what works best for them and how they like their fences and each landowner should be entitled to whatever they like, as long as it serves the purpose, because the landowner worked, sweated, and bled to try to pay for their land. Wildlife had plenty of natural runways and escape routes before field edges were cleaned out and water ditches were filled in and fields were cleaned and sprayed to keep out unwanted vegetation (which usually is what quail and other wildlife thrive on). Most all of our fences are 20-60 years old, I have never tried to add up how many miles there are, but I have never seen one of the fences harmed by brush growth. Sprouts make trees and they make great fence posts. Most of the fences have 20-30 foot width of brush and weeds and growth for wildlife. I love to quail hunt, turkey hunt, deer hunt, etc. So, I am constantly conscience of things that attract wildlife and help them to live and multiply. I have an Uncle who sprays under every fence, has a 2 feet dead area underneath and his farm is clean as a hounds tooth. He sure does not have to worry about me setting foot on him to bird hunt, however, he does have to come to my place to see wildlife or to hunt, himself. My thought on Nova's post about the guy cleaning the fence line and getting stopped; I believe others have posted that they build the fence 1 foot over on their property so the fence belongs to them. I am sure that guy could have had the dozer stay on his side of the line and built the fence however he wanted to on his side and it would have been his fence. I am thinking that dozer was crossing the property line and destroying wildlife habitat that took years to establish and was on the other guy's property. When the county cuts with the vertical brush hog along my county road fencelines, I demand that they cut up from the fence line and do not get on top of the fence or reach over the fence. When driving the road, you will see a line of cedars and other trees extending straight up from the fence, sometimes 30 feet tall, and you can usually not see into my pasture. It is almost like driving between two walls, LOL. Those trees are so thick, you do not have to worry about any fence getting torn up, even a car couldn't drive through those trees. I also do not have cattle shot by people who are spotlighting.
When I was a kid, we had a relative who had 2 sections of great farm land in Springfield, Mo. My Father and Grandfather and I farmed that land on the shares. We went every day all summer and raised corn and alfalfa, orchard grass, and clover on the whole thing. The owner was a wildlife lover. The fields were cut into 20's and 40's and every fenceline was at least 20 feet wide with osage orange trees, mulitflora rose, and weeds. Asparagus grew wild in the fence rows. There were more quail and rabbits than you could imagine. Where that farm was is now a big Mall, several shopping centers, hundreds of houses, a car dealership, etc. Not one brushy fence row to bother people's vision. Also, not a wild animal, anywhere. They sure cleaned that place up, didn't they? Didn't mean to stir things up too much, and I hope we never lose the right to have our fences how we want to have them. Just wanted to throw in my brushy habits.