Landscapes.

This excellent book, dated 1955, has given me considerable food for thought. Having in the past travelled, if not the length and breadth, some substantial bits of the British Isles, W G Hoskins' scholarship and research have made many things clearer. Going back to pre-Anglo-Saxon times, he demonstrates how the extensive forests that covered Britain (and much of Eurpope), were gradually cleared for agriculture and pastureland. I quote from p 58:

"The axe, fire and animals combined to reduce the dense and continuous woodlands of Anglo-Saxon England."

The oak, ash and beech forests all fell before the advance. Thousands of oaks were cut for housing, firewood and later shipbuilding. I think it's true that Nelson's navy was alrgely built of English oak, which you can still see in dry-dock at the Old Ships museum in Portsmouth harbour. Hence the phrase "hearts of Oak"?

While reading this book, I was reminded of the deforestation of New Zealand. On a visit to the Te Papa museum in Wellington last year (2008), I was surprised to learn that a thousand years ago New Zealand was also covered in dense broadleaved forest. I assume the islands had been uninhabited (but still need to confirm that) until the Polynesian, or Maori, colonisation around the 15th century. There being no edible mammals on the islands, the Maori caught fish and practised a slash-and-burn agriculture. Researchers have found ancient sites of burnt trees that seem to confirm this. Apparently only 25% of new Zealand's old-growth forests remain today. What the first colonists started was accelerated by the arrival of European settlers. Having escaped from the smoky cities of the industrial revolution, the settlers desperately needed pasture and arable land to produce food and revenue.

It seems that the process that took place in Engalnd over centuries, came about in a hundred years or so in the colony. And not only New Zealand: the Australian colonists, too, cleared large tracts of eucalypt forest to put down pasture and crops. In Western Australia, there is a clearly demarcated line between the wheatland and the native bush.

That being said, I must say that I have no wish to criticise historic practises in Australasia; my acquaintences and relatives there have been extremely hospitable and nice, and I love both countries. I'm not going to comment publicly, if at all, until I've read and researched a lot more!

Incidentally, my reference for the New Zealand information was Herbert Guthrie-Smith, a settler and successful New Zealand farmer: I want read his book The Sorrows and Joys of a New Zealand Naturalist, and visit his old farm, Tutira -- if ever I can return to those far-off islands!

This photo illustrates some of the dense forests of New Zealand, with some giant tree-ferns. It was taken in Queen Charlotte Sound in October 2008.

Reference: remarks about Herbert Guthrie-Smith;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Guthrie-Smith

Enough, the Engineer retreats to the study!!