----- Forwarded Message ---- From: SIMON TREASURE <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, 11 September, 2007 12:49:07 AM Subject: Re: [ORCADIA] Wind the most current information care of the science festival last week was presented by two archaeologists in the latter stages of a major study of pollen drawn from deep cores in peat bogs around orkney covering the entire post glacial period. Very preliminary results but they indicate widespread tree coverage for considerably longer than previously thought, well into the bronze age period with clearances for grazing or husbanded (like deer) animals becoming a significant negative factor from around 5000 years ago. the results also indicate no significant change in climate (based on species present) at the bronze age/neolithic barrier as is usually assumed to explain the cultural changes evident at that time. i use sycamores as my backbone trees as they are very resilient and keep going when others fail. they are part of all my planting, which includes Hawthorne and downy birch as well as those listed earlier. I use scrub willow on the western side (westerly gales are the killing winds) together with elder, fuscia and ribes to create a diverse shelter belt. I under plant with dog rose and rugosa to establish a naturalised planting biodiversity as quickly as possible. 35% of the planting is native orkney stock propagated from the most ancient northerly woodland in the uk , the magical berriedale woodland in hoy. ----- Original Message ---- From: Royce Perry <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, 10 September, 2007 6:29:59 PM Subject: Re: [ORCADIA] Wind Grazing livestock would have more impact on scrub vegetation than it would on forests. Four thousand years ago would put us back into what..the late Neolithic? Is there archeological evidence of herding on Orkney that far back? If so then humans could a cause,,or at least a contributing factor. R -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charles Tait Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 12:08 PM To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [ORCADIA] Wind Pollen studies show that after the Ice Age Orkney was covered by scrubby trees, which gave way to grass and moorland by before 4000BC, perhaps under the influence of people and their grazing animals. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message