In this comprehensive book, the critical components of the European landscape – forest, parkland, and other grazed landscapes with trees are addressed. The book considers the history of grazed treed landscapes, of large grazing herbivores in Europe, and the implications of the past in shaping our environment today and in the future. Debates on the types of anciently grazed landscapes in Europe, and what they tell us about past and present ecology, have been especially topical and controversial recently. This treatment brings the current discussions and the latest research to a much wider audience.

The book breaks new ground in broadening the scope of wood-pasture and woodland research to address sites and ecologies that have previously been overlooked but which hold potential keys to understanding landscape dynamics. Eminent contributors, including Oliver Rackham and Frans Vera, present a text which addresses the importance of history in understanding the past landscape, and the relevance of historical ecology and landscape studies in providing a future vision.

"This volume makes clear that focusing on ecological processes rather than thinking about baseline cultural landscapes is necessary but needs more research, particularly if it is to inform land use and conservation policies that account for species movement between wooded and nonwooded landscapes." – Environmental History, Matthew Kelly, University of Southampton, UK

Ian D. Rotherham is Professor of Environmental Geography, Reader in Tourism & Environmental Change, and International Research Co-ordinator Professor in the Faculty of Development and Society, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.