Ever since Neolithic times when the first forests were cleared, we have grazed, cut and burned them, and on the acidic soils around Poole Harbour this has created the ideal conditions for heather and other dwarf shrubs to thrive.
Immortalised by Thomas Hardy in books such as Return of the Native, our heaths are more than beautiful, open spaces to walk through. They are home to some of our most specialist wildlife: strongholds of birds such as the internationally protected nightjar and Dartford warbler, and the only landscapes in which you can find all six of our native reptiles.
Changes in farming and the loss of traditional rural ways of life mean that in this country we have lost 80 per cent of our lowland heaths over the past 200 years, but despite this the UK is still home to 20 per cent of the world’s remaining area.