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Ben RawlenceThe Treelinep. 16 |
Scotlands signature landscape - the bog - is a ruined landscape
Rackham argues that pine wood never stretched from shore to shore., but it certainly covered most of Scotland until Mesolithic humans began to clear the forest for agriculture, hunting and construction. Managing the forest rhrough felling, clearing or burning for game played a role in creating biodiverse habitats of heath and moor, but also set the stage for the creeping blanket bog that has become upland Britain’s signature landscape. The bog is, in a sense, a ruined ecosystem as tree clearance has allowed minerals and iron to be washed into the lower layers of the soil, creating a pan impermeable to water. Unable to drain, the rundra-type landscape becomes waterlogged, and plants do not fully decompose, forming peat.