European Woodlands

About the European Woodlands

European wildlife lives in a landscape that people have been reworking for thousands of years, and much of what is characteristic about it exists because of that rather than in spite of it — hedgerows, coppice, meadow and woodland edge all support species that would have far less room in unbroken forest. The large predators were removed from most of the continent centuries ago, and their absence still shapes the system, with deer populations limited by culling rather than by wolves or lynx. The last few decades have seen a partial reversal, as wolves, lynx, bears and beavers recolonise ground they were driven from, sometimes with deliberate help and sometimes on their own. The harder losses have been the quiet ones: farmland birds and insects, thinned out by intensification.