In article ,
martin wrote:

Yes the climate has been changing but the immense tree clearance and
land drainage took place mainly during the last couple of hundred years
(ish) to my knowledge.

The downs and the northern moors were not cleared of trees in modern
times. The moors were cleared during prehistoric times, the downs in
the middle ages

No, they were cleared much earlier than that. It was the change from
arable to pastoral use that happened in the middle ages.

The only recent large-scale clearing (other than to build cities)
that I know of was in the Highlands, and that was mostly a few hundred
years back. Perhaps Ireland at the same time, too.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.