Keith Kirby & Charles Watkins 
Europe’s Changing Woods and Forests 
From Wildwood to Managed Landscapes

Our understanding of the historical ecology of European forests has been transformed in the last twenty years. Bringing together key findings from across the continent, Europe’s Changing Woods and Forests: From Wildwood to Managed Landscapes provides a comprehensive account of recent research and the relevance of historical studies to our current conservation and management of forests.

Combining theory with a series of regional case studies, this book shows how different aspects of forestry play out according to the landscape and historical context of the local area, with broad implications for woodland history, policy and management. Beginning with an overview of Europe’s woods and forests, the book reviews a variety of management techniques (including wood-pastures, coppicing, close-to-nature forestry and the impact of hunting), describes how plants and animals respond to changes in woodland and forest cover, and includes case histories from around the continent. It concludes with a discussion of how lessons learned from the past can help in the future. This book is both a vital resource and an interesting read for foresters, conservationists, landscape historians, geographers and ecologists.

Circa l’autore

After a Ph.D. at University College, London and a short appointment in Aberystwyth University, Dr Peterken was for two years co-ordinator of part of the International Biological Programme and then scientific officer in the Biological Records Centre. He was then appointed to the Nature Conservancy’s woodland management section at Monks Wood in 1969, and remained a woodland ecologist with NC and successor bodies until 1992, spending much of his time as the senior woodland ecologist in the Chief Scientist’s Team, where his work ranged from policy negotiations through research commissioning, personal research and lecturing to on-site management advice, in fact anything and everything that might advance woodland ecology and nature conservation. He took a sabbatical for 18 months in 1989-90 to study so-called virgin forests in mainland Europe and to hold a Bullard Fellowship at Harvard University.

In 1993, he went independent. For a decade he was part-time nature conservation advisor to the Forestry Commission, but was also involved in collaborative research projects, teaching, lecturing, writing and routine consultancy. Shortly after the Millennium he decided to spend his time mainly writing a New Naturalist volume and more recently a book on Meadows – meadows being a retirement hobby.
Long-term studies have been a theme of his research and research-commissioning since the 1970s, when he first became involved with Lady Park Wood, the subject of this book. Dr Peterken’s interest in historical ecology dates from the 1960s.