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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nirofo" data-source="post: 1392913" data-attributes="member: 1854">Up to approx 350 years ago Scotland used to be covered in forest right up to the north coast, The Great Wood of Caledon, several major European and other wars boosted the need for timber and necessitated the continual tree felling by man, eventually only remnant forest remained and the felled land was gradually overtaken by heather and coarse grasses. Overgrazing by deer followed on by sheep has made sure that the natural forest did not return. The Scottish heather moorland is in deep trouble, in the far north it suffers from annual and indiscriminate muir burn, heather blight has decimated vast areas in many parts of Scotland. 200 years of overgrazing by sheep has soured the ground to such an extent that it hardly grows anything. Now that the crofters no longer have the generous government sheep subsidies to rely on the majority of the sheep have gone from the hiil, unfortunately the damage has already been done and it will take many years if ever for the land to become fertile again. Many thousands of acres of fine flow bog and natural moorland were planted with useless and unprofitable Lodgepole Pine and Sitka Spruce in the 80's, (tax evasion), thereby ensuring the death of the moorland habitat in those areas. It's doubtfull if the heather will ever return to what it once was in Scotland, regardless of whether it's managed or not. nirofo.</blockquote>