This book provides an introduction to peatlands for the non-specialist student reader and for all those concerned about environmental protection, and is an essential guide to peatland history and heritage for scientists and enthusiasts. Peat is formed when vegetation partially decays in a waterlogged environment and occurs extensively throughout both temperate and tropical regions. Interest in peatlands is currently high due to the degradation of global peatlands which is disrupting hydrology and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. This book opens by explaining how peat is formed, its properties and worldwide distribution, and defines related terms such as mires, wetlands, bogs and marshes. There is discussion of the ecology and wildlife of peatlands as well as their ability to preserve pollen and organic remains as environmental archives. It also addresses the history, heritage and cultural exploitation of peat, extending back to pre-Roman times, and the degradation of peatlands over the centuries, particularly as a source of fuel but more recently for commercial horticulture. Other chapters discuss the ecosystem services delivered by peatlands, and how their destruction is contributing to biodiversity loss, flooding or drought, and climate change. Finally, the many current peatland restoration projects around the world are highlighted. Overall the book provides a wide-ranging but concise overview of peatlands from both a natural and social science perspective, and will be invaluable for students of ecology, geography, environmental studies and history.
Though most of us will have enjoyed strolling through beautiful British woodlands, we might not be aware of the ancient – and often complex – origins of our surroundings. From medieval times, woodlands were carefully managed commodities with hotly contested resources: conflicting demands from landowners, the Crown, the peasantry and local and national wood-based industries have all left their marks on today's woodland. Ian D. Rotherham here explains the various uses of British woods and their industries, such as coppicing, charcoal-burning, basket-making and bodging, and helps the reader to seek out the clues to their woodland's past.
For thousands of years peat was the main fuel that that warmed houses all over the British Isles, and the mark of the peat cutter is written deep in the landscape. This book is a celebration of a cultural history that extended from the Iron Age to the twentieth century. It tells the story of the use of peat for fuel in the British Isles, and the people who cut it. It also examines the methods of cutting, the tools that were used, and the organization of cutting. It chronicles the beginning of commercial extraction and the exhaustion of this precious resource.
We show here how, through the efforts of a range of governmental and non-governmental organisations, habitats and species are now being managed to preserve our biodiversity for the future. In this period of rapid environmental change and ever increasing human impact, the success of such conservation initiatives has never been more vital. Over the past half-century there have been many changes in the Yorkshire countryside. Deciduous woodlands have been felled and replaced by conifer plantations; wetlands and ponds have been drained; grasslands have been reseeded, and arable fields have been intensively farmed. Our river systems and coastline have also been subjected to increasing pressure and pollution. All these changes have had dramatic effects on YorkshireÕs semi-natural habitats and their associated wildlife. Added to these effects, our climate is altering more rapidly than at any time in the last 10,000 years, leading to further challenges for plants and animals.
The loss of the great fenlands of eastern England is the greatest single removal of ecology in our history. So thorough was the process that most visitors to the regions, or even people living there, have little idea of what has gone. For many, the Fenlands are the vast expansive flatlands of intensive farming, the 'breadbaskets' of Britain. Lost are the vast flocks of wetland birds that filled the evening skies in winter, the frozen wetlands and the fen skaters of the winter, and the abundant black terns or breeding wading birds of the summer months. However, pause a while off main roads and consider place names and road names: Fenny Lane, The Withies, Commonside, Reed Holme, Fen Common, Turbary Lane, Wildmore, Adventurers' Fen, Wicken Fen, and more; they tell a story of a landscape now gone but once hugely important. The Fens bred revolution and civil war and paid the penalty. They nurtured religious non-conformism with global impact. After 1066, the Saxons withheld the Normans' onslaught, and in the 1970s, unting's Beavers took action against twentieth-century invaders. The fenscapes, neither water nor land but something in-between, breed independence and, if necessary, dissention. This story is of politically and economically driven ecological catastrophe and loss. So much has gone, but we do not even know fully what was there before. With global environmental change, and especially climate change, fenlands once again have major roles in our sustainable futures.
Sherwood Forest is arguably the most famous historic landscape in the world, immortalized through storytelling, mythology, romantic books, and ultimately by Hollywood. This is the setting for Robin Hood, Little John and the rest of the 'Merry Men'. Yet behind the glamorous legends are equally fascinating places, people and histories. An important and vast medieval 'Forest' and extensive heath, the area was farmed and settled before that time. After the break-up of the Royal Hunting Forest came the famous establishment of great halls, houses and parks of the aristocracy, the so-called 'Dukeries', and then industry, with deep coal mining, wartime military training, and twentieth-century forestry. From the nineteenth century onwards, the region was a notable tourism and leisure destination, and the sites of famous oak trees such as the Major Oak were places one could visit to touch the past. Tourism continues today as visitors from around the world come to experience the forest's nature, history and myth. This book is not a guide to the region but a companion to the area, its history, its people and its landscape. As such, this volume will be of great interest to visitors to the region, to residents and to all those fascinated by the history and the legends of Sherwood and the Dukeries. The book focuses on Sherwood Forest and the Dukeries area, but in the context of the surrounding towns and villages and is richly illustrated with images from the past, including photographs, postcards, paintings and antique prints from over two hundred years.
The conference at which the chapters in this book were originally presented as papers - Working and Walking in the Footsteps of Ghosts - took place at Sheffield Hallam University between 29th May and 1st June 2003. The conference proceedings were published at the event as a bound volume of abstracts and longer papers. This was a landmark conference. It was a large conference of more than 300 delegates who came from all parts of Britain including the Republic of Ireland and from continental Europe - Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. It marked the tenth anniversary of the first national woodland conference in Sheffield organised by The Landscape Conservation Forum. The delegates came from a very wide range of backgrounds, academic, professional forestery, land managers, Wildlife Trusts, the Forestry Commission, English Nature, English Heritage, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Woodland Trust and members of woodland conservation and wildlife groups.
This is the ninth volume of papers in the Journal of Practical Ecology & Conservation series. There is a range of topics covered in this issue from monitoring upland vegetation to the ecology of the New Zealand Walking Bat and the case for using wood-fuel as a means of sustainably managing moorlands and heaths. The editorial paper looks at grazing regimes and the impact of cultural severance on managing wooded landscapes.
Organised by The Landscape Conservation Forum, the Between a Rock and a Hard Place seminar was aimed at all those involved in the conservation of rural sites and landscapes. It considered the impacts, both individual and cumulative, of mineral extraction on our landscapes. The debate addressed why we are so concerned about these impacts, and what steps are being, and could or should, be taken to conserve our natural and historic environments. The seminar considered the impacts of mineral extraction on our natural and historic environments; how they have and are being assessed and how those impacts can be mitigated.
The Wild by Design seminar was aimed at all those involved in the conservation of sites and landscapes. It was intended to address critical issues of landscape management and landscape change including how agricultural, urban and post-industrial landscapes change and evolve. It considered the impacts of agricultural diversification and extensification, as well as proposals for the release of upland areas from pastoral grazing management. The Ploughing on Regardless seminar took place in October 2003. It considered the impacts of cultivation on our natural and historic environments, how they have and are being assessed and how damage can be mitigated. It raised issues of the ways in which Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) can protect uncultivated land from improvement. Speakers and participants at both events included landscape professionals, archaeologists, ecologists, earth scientists, planners, conservationists and workers in education.
Shadow Woods: a search for lost landscapes is intended to view ecology and landscapes in a somewhat different way from that which we normally do; to effectively view the countryside through a different lens. Considering ancient woods and treed countryside, the intention is to raise awareness about our ecological and landscape origins and through this to open up new possibilities and exciting opportunities. It is suggested that we need to understand the past to inform the present, and from this knowledge we can influence the future The author also introduces a number of key issues and ideas that are new - shadow woods, ghost woods, lost woods, eco-cultural landscapes, cultural severance, grubby landscapes, ecological filtration, biodiversity time-capsules, futurescapes, and more. This edition, revised in march 2018, contains updated figures / diagrams.
Part 1. A History of Commons and Commons Management : Cultural Severance and Commons Past; Part 2. Commons : Current Management and Problems : Cultural Severance and Commons Present
Part 1. A History of Commons and Commons Management : Cultural Severance and Commons Past; Part 2. Commons : Current Management and Problems : Cultural Severance and Commons Present
The threats from global cultural change and abandonment of traditional landscape management increased in the last half of the twentieth century and ten years into the twenty-first century show no signs of slowing down. Their impacts on global biodiversity and on people disconnected from their traditional landscapes pose real and serious economic and social problems which need to be addressed now. The End of Tradition conference held in Sheffield, UK, was organised by Ian D. Rotherham and colleagues. It addressed the fundamental issues of whether we can conserve the biodiversity of wonderful and iconic landscapes and reconnect people to their natural environment. And, if we can, how can we do so and make them relevant for the twenty-first century. The book is in two parts: Part 1. A History of Commons and Commons Management and Part 2. Commons: Current Management and Problems.
This book has been published as part of a major conference held in Sheffield UK, on the theme of 'Animals, Man and Treescapes' which looked at the interactions between grazing animals, humans and wooded landscapes. It linked community projects and educational outputs throughout the UK, across Europe and beyond. The event promoted landscape ecology conservation through local, national and international initiatives.
One of the oldest settlements in Western Europe, York grew up on dry land with protective rivers and associated wetlands giving security and mobility. Early, prehistoric settlement was on nearby drier, raised areas along the flood plain. Here the Romans built a great, northern, fortified city and military settlement from which they could foray overland into northern England or by ship and the coastal route to Scotland and the Picts. Yorks significance was emphasized when Constantine was made Emperor whilst residing there.Lean times followed after Roman abandonment and Saxon neglect before the Vikings swept into northern England, with Jorvic, reborn as their capital, York, much to their liking. Once subsumed into Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, York continued its huge strategic and military significance through late Saxon times, during the Norman Conquest, and into medieval England. Indeed, two of the most far-reaching battles in English history were fought at nearby Fulford and Stamford Bridge. Yorks military significance grew again during the Wars of the Roses, with the Battle of Towton in 1461 described as the most barbaric ever fought on British soil.Following oscillating and vicious disputes over religion during the reigns of the later Tudors, divisive and punitive civil war played out again under the Stuart kings and Parliamentary Commonwealth. Through all this, York was a major strategic location in northern England; an important base for those commanding it, a significant prize for those who did not. This military importance declined into modern times but the city retains garrison and regimental ties. The last direct conflict occurred when York was targeted for retaliatory Baedeker raids by German bombers during April 1942. Yorks remarkable history and longevity, and its significance in English and sometimes international politics and economics, have left a unique, unparalleled military history.
The loss of the great fenlands of eastern England is the greatest single removal of ecology in our history. So thorough was the process that most visitors to the regions, or even people living there, have little idea of what has gone. For many, the Fenlands are the vast expansive flatlands of intensive farming, the ‘breadbaskets’ of Britain. Lost are the vast flocks of wetland birds that filled the evening skies in winter, the frozen wetlands and the fen skaters of the winter, and the abundant black terns or breeding wading birds of the summer months. However, pause a while off main roads and consider place names and road names: Fenny Lane, The Withies, Commonside, Reed Holme, Fen Common, Turbary Lane, Wildmore, Adventurers’ Fen, Wicken Fen, and more; they tell a story of a landscape now gone but once hugely important.The Fens bred revolution and civil war and paid the penalty. They nurtured religious non-conformism with global impact. After 1066, the Saxons withheld the Normans’ onslaught, and in the 1970s, unting’s Beavers took action against twentieth-century invaders. The fenscapes, neither water nor land but something in-between, breed independence and, if necessary, dissention. This story is of politically and economically driven ecological catastrophe and loss. So much has gone, but we do not even know fully what was there before. With global environmental change, and especially climate change, fenlands once again have major roles in our sustainable futures.
The themes of this book were addressed at a major international conference in 2013, and the expanded papers are presented here as chapters with an introduction by Ian D. Rotherham. The papers are grouped around several themes: Military Landscapes; Battles and Battlefields; The Impacts of Conflict and War; War & Peat in the Peak District; and Non-military Campaigns. As we approach the centenary of the Great War (WW1), matters of landscape, terrain, resources and strategies become increasingly topical and relevant. The relationships of people and landscapes, of economies and conflicts, and ecology and history, are complex and multi-faceted. For peatlands, including bogs, fens, moors, and heaths, the interactions of people and nature in relation to history and conflicts, are both significant and surprising."--
This fascinating selection of photographs and informative text charts the history of some of Sheffield's finest and most notorious pubs, taverns and old alehouses.
Trees Beyond the Wood was written for a conference organised to celebrate twenty years of work since the first major conference on the theme of ancient trees and woodlands held in Sheffield, UK. It was held almost ten years after the landmark 2003 Working and Walking in the Footsteps of Ghosts event which started to raise issues and challenge assumptions about what is 'ancient' or 'natural' and what is meant by the terms 'wood' or 'woodland'. Since then on-going work in a range of disciplines across ecology, biology, landscape history, archaeology, forestry and nature conservation has continued the process of research and evaluation across the subject area. The collection of papers by contributors from across Europe reflects this broad range of interests and disciplines.
Yorkshire Forgotten Fens is a history of the cultural landscape of the wetlands of the Humber basin and the entire county of Yorkshire stretching from the Humber and north Lincolnshire through the Vale of York, through South Yorkshire and Holderness, to Pickering and beyond. The book draws together the story of a changing landscape, the lost cultures and ways of life, and the wildlife that has gone too.With the final chapter closing on the new wet fenland landscapes which are now emerging and presenting current visions and challenges for these truly evocative of landscapes, this is a book based on our past but with a vision for the future. The book is profusely illustrated with maps, photographs, paintings, and extracts from historic documents.
This volume of the Journal of Practical Ecology and Conservation contains chapters about managing and controlling water to guard against flooding. It also includes two chapters on assessment of chemical and bacteriological water quality and their impact on agricultural settlements in North African desert regions.
This volume is a retrospective publication of contributions originally to two national conferences / seminars held in Sheffield, on the theme of 'Urban Environments - History, Biodiversity and Culture'. To the updated papers from those events we have added invited current contributions on the themes of urban nature and urban ecology. Ideas and issues in urban ecology become more significant as globalisation, urbanisation and cultural severance shape our world and our future ecologies. This is paralleled by increasing interest in the underpinning science and research paradigms in relation to urban environmental spaces.In the early 2000s, ecologists new to the urban context suddenly became excited about the juxta-position of pollution and biodiversity in degraded and contaminated sites, something well-known to urban ecologists and naturalists since the 1980s or earlier. Similarly, the contributions of urban gardens to nature conservation were greeted with surprise and excitement.
This comprehensive study explores the landscapes and heritage of past conflicts along with defensive and offensive structures. Throughout history, nature – its resources, landscape and terrain – has shaped the tactics of warfare and determined its outcomes. From the medieval English Fens to the 20th century Iraqi Marsh Arabs, landscapes have fostered resistance and dissention. Harnessed by people under threat the landscape has influenced strategies and tactics. Water and wetland halted campaigns in the Florida Everglades and in the Franco-Prussian War of the late 1800s. In the Second World War the Dutch flooded the drained polders to halt the Nazi advance and in 1938 the Chinese nationalist forces breached the flood-dykes of the Yellow River to halt the Japanese advance. Mountain ranges and deserts have long provided landscapes for resistance fighters. From the former Yugoslavia to Afghanistan these gnarly battlescapes traverse time and space. Libyan fighters held off invading Italian forces by operating from the caves and valleys of the Green Mountains and the Welsh defended their mountainous principalities against the Angevin Normans. The landscapes and heritage of past conflicts, defensive and offensive structures, and much more are brough together in this comprehensive study.
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