A unique 3D virtual reality guide to the history of the countryside, the role and importance of agriculture and the development of civic society. A chronology covering the last 15,000 years. Essential reading with image and video representation.
The Survey is produced by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and sponsored by the DETR and others and is designed to reproduce detailed information about the habitats and landscape features that are important in the UK countryside. The report covers the period from 1991 to 1998 and illustrates that the 1990s have not been a period of destruction in the countryside.
Woodland in the UK now covers around 2.8 million hectares representing nearly 12% of the UK land area. Many different woodland ecosystems exist although the greatest land cover is still represented by coniferous forest at around 60% of the total. This article describes the most common woodland ecosystems.
This unique guide to conservation and farmland biodiversity illustrates practical initiatives by land managers in their care of the countryside. The resource which illustrates some 450 examples is primarily ordered by date with the most recent appearing first.
"In the early years of the 21st Century the crisis in agriculture deepened. Farm profitability slumped and although few farmers were able to remain in business, a new spirit of co-operation amongst them emerged. Gone was the myopic preoccupation with their neighbors' activities, farmers had begun to think "global" and see that the real competition came from producers abroad."
"In the early years of the 21st Century the crisis in agriculture deepened. Farm profitability slumped and few farmers were able to remain in business. Many retired early and by 2010 there were few genuine farmers left."
Most people recognise that the countryside and landscape of the British Isles have been fashioned by the need for agriculture over the last 6,000 years. However, within the last two decades the internationalisation of agriculture has led to a position where almost all of our basic foodstuffs can be imported and the requirement for a domestic agricultural industry has been much reduced.
The first recorded use of charcoal comes from the black pigment used in European cave paintings dating from around 32,000 years ago. It is not known whether this charcoal was produced deliberately.
The collection and preparation of the right timber is important to ensure a consistent charcoal product that meets both high quality standards as a fuel, as well as helping improve the woodland environment. Today, timber is sourced from woodland regeneration projects, coppicing and thinning.
It is easy to forget that charcoal was the world’s first industrial fuel and that it has been used in the UK over much of the last five thousand years. During that time there had been a huge pressure on timber supplies and this has necessitated the production and effective management of the woodland resource.
The perspective on charcoal use over time illustrates the importance that man's first industrial fuel has assumed for over four thousand years.
Of the current uses "soil improvement" is really a byproduct from charcoal manufacture. The fine charcoal pieces that are sieved before the charcoal is bagged are usable for soil improvement usually in horticultural situations.
