Heather Burning

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fitzcoraldo F
fitzcoraldo Jul 16, 2006 11:17:49
Replying to BuckyE

I guess I was being a little harsh on our prehistoric ancestors but yes I am saying that the heather moorlands are unnatural. Heather moorlands are managed primarily to provide to an optimum environment for the breeding of grouse. I guess I cannot blame our prehistoric ancestors for the creation of all of these moorlands, post glacial climatic changes are probably the primary driving force behind their formation. However in some locations, prehistoric human disturbance of forested areas can be seen as a proximal trigger for blanket peat formation.
Take a look at this picture
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/43971
This photo was taken a year after a devastating fire that not only destroyed the heather but also removed a few centuries worth of peat.
If I had taken a photograph from the same position just before the fire, all you would have seen would have been a thick blanket of heather.

B BuckyE
BuckyE Jul 17, 2006 22:52:38
Replying to fitzcoraldo

Of course in our many American parks and National forests we have just the opposite problem. A century or so of rigorous fire suppression has made the land an explosion waiting to happen, as indeed they have been in recent years. I know I've read the Native Americans on our east coast created and managed meadows by burning, although I don't think that affected very much acreage compared to the surrounding forests.

So I just wondered how much of the "open acreage" could be ascribed to ancient management, and how much to more modern?