Utopian Shire - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Lalwendë · 11-30-2008, 06:36 AM

England has been under cultivation for so long that our species are thoroughly adapted to it and if we went back to wildwoods then we'd also lose many of those species. Red squirrels for example - as they can now only thrive in isolated pockets of woodland and even then they struggle. We've also a lot of birds adapted to hedgerows and birds of prey adapted over millennia to hunting open fields for mice and voles.

I think Tolkien liked variety of landscape to be honest - he has these vast woodlands which are untamed and frankly creepy, but he wouldn't have had any wide open vistas to write about if people hadn't cleared them! Taking just one place, the area of the Barrow-Downs must have at one time been cleared of gorse by setting sheep to graze there or it wouldn't have looked like that.

11-30-2008, 06:36 AM	#13
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,737	England has been under cultivation for so long that our species are thoroughly adapted to it and if we went back to wildwoods then we'd also lose many of those species. Red squirrels for example - as they can now only thrive in isolated pockets of woodland and even then they struggle. We've also a lot of birds adapted to hedgerows and birds of prey adapted over millennia to hunting open fields for mice and voles. I think Tolkien liked variety of landscape to be honest - he has these vast woodlands which are untamed and frankly creepy, but he wouldn't have had any wide open vistas to write about if people hadn't cleared them! Taking just one place, the area of the Barrow-Downs must have at one time been cleared of gorse by setting sheep to graze there or it wouldn't have looked like that. __________________ Gordon's alive!