The New Forest remains the most extensive heathland landscape in Britain, but it has nevertheless suffered greatly from habitat degradation over recent centuries. Clive Chatters and Catherine McGuire review the pattern of habitat fragmentation in the Forest from the 19th century to the present day, and examine how this has affected wildlife.
The New Forest is rightly celebrated as the largest and most complete of England’s heathland landscapes. The Forest is not now, nor has it ever been, immune to change.