Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(
Calluna
spp.) harvested from heath and common. Gorse was important fodder for
cattle and horses, particularly in winter when other crops were scarce, and large areas
were set aside for its cultivation. Many commons yielded underwood and timber for
building, bracken fern (
Pteridium aquilinum
) or “fern,” and heather for fuel and
building.
Unfortunately, these landscapes have been changed dramatically by agricultural
intensification and land “improvement.” Lee Chadwick (1982) in her topic
Our Van-
ishing Heathlands
suggested the following: “At present one might say that the whole
future of our heathlands is in the melting pot and there is a danger that unless citizens
are sufficiently stimulated to sit up and take notice, the particularly British institution
of the common may be in greater danger, despite the recent spate of legislation, than
at any time since the Enclosure Acts.” Chadwick highlighted cultural and traditional
uses of heaths and commons, and rights of usage as key factors in preservation and
conservation; suggesting that utilitarian community attachment was vital. Heath-
lands, commons, fens, and bogs remain the Cinderellas of British conservation, par-
ticularly northern heaths and commons. Unlike woodlands or wetlands, they still
await their conservation-minded Prince Charming to put on the glass slipper.
Chadwick and others, such as Webb (1986, 1998), raised awareness about the
plight of southern English lowland heaths but largely ignored the formerly more ex-
tensive northern heathlands. Due to the impacts of the Enclosure Acts (1750-1860)
and expanded industrialization/urbanization, once extensive upland moors became
separated from lowland heaths and commons, the latter reduced to isolated pockets
abandoned to neglect and ecological succession—islands in a sea of “improved“ land.
Ecological change was further exacerbated by massive precipitation of smoke, grime,
and nutrients; a process that continues today with nitrogen fallout from car fumes.
In 2006, I described the heaths and commons across the North Midlands and
northern England as being in poor condition, mainly because their traditional uses
have ended. The nature and scale of associated changes in these landscapes are fun-
damental to their present-day condition. For instance, long-term, subsistence farming
has been grossly underestimated in terms of its importance. Indeed, without this type
of farming, plagio-climax communities, abandoned heaths, commons, and other
areas succeed rapidly to tall herb, scrub, and woodland. Ironically, grant-aided tree
planting to create plantation woodlands (ostensibly for conservation) speeds the de-
cline of heaths, commons, and similar plant communities.
My colleagues and I also studied approaches to heathland restoration at Wharn-
cliffe (Rotherham, Rose, and Percy 2000) where there is archaeological evidence of a
substantial Romano-British quern-stone factory about 1,700 years ago. The removal of
encroaching scrub and secondary woodland in addition to controlled heather burning
and cutting, bracken spraying, and grazing by rare breeds of livestock helped to restore
this heathland.
We also studied restoration efforts in the riverside meadows and marshes of the
lowland River Rother, which has a two-hundred-year legacy of intensive industry and
pollution. Restored sites were subject to agreed conservation management plans with
restoration strategies for reestablished traditional hay cutting and grazing by rare
