Hertfordshire's countryside has been shaped by the interactions of climate, vegetation, animals, geology and soil, and above all, by the activities of man. this process of change began 7,000 years ago when Neolithic farmers first began to clear the land to grow cereal crops. Plants and animals responded and adapted to these changes so that as woodland areas were cleared, areas of grassland and heathland arose with their characteristic plant and animal communities creating a rich mosaic of landscape features.
The countryside continues to evolve, but now changes are more radical and take place more quickly. In the past 50 years the pace and extent of changes has been more significant than at any previous period in man's history. Increased agricultural efficiency, modern forestry and urban developments have dramatically altered the landscape and in the process have severely depleted Hertfordshire's wildlife. Although there have been some gains in the creation of reservoirs and flooded gravel pits by amenity tree planting and small scale habitat creation schemes, these are far outweighed by the losses. All the main types of wildlife habitat within the County have suffered appreciably, but for some habitats the scale and rate of loss have been catastrophic. The following are estimates of the scale of this loss.
More..... Wildflower Meadows - Habitat Protection - Ancient Woodlands - Fragmentation - Ponds - Marshland - Rivers
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