The Mid-Holocene Ecological History of the Moorlands of England and Wales and its Relevance for Conservation

The nature of the moorlands of England and Wales is described and a brief outline of their postglacial ecological history is propounded. Emphasis then switches to a particularly critical phase in this evolution, namely the later centuries of the Mesolithic period of the mid-Holocene, when the human groups of the period employed fire as a management tool for vegetation.