THE HISTORY OF THE CONCERN FOR PEATLAND LOSS.
Three years ago in the Mires Research News (issue 5) I
wrote a brief article on the history of concern over
peatland decline. The first British source that I
could find that described Peatlands as declining was
'The Great Ice Age' by James Geikie (1874), this
provides (pages 338-339) a clear description of the
decline in Scottish mires but without any suggestion
that they should be conserved.
In 1996 I asked 2 questions.
1) Did anyone know of an earlier description of human
caused decline in mires?
2) When was the first published plea for peatland
conservation?
No-one replied!!
Can anyone on this discussion group help?
(NOTE FOR ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED; my main peatland
research interests are in Quaternary paleoecology and
testate amoebae)
David M Wilkinson
Biology and Earth Sciences
Liverpool John Moores University
Byrom Street
Liverpool
L3 3AF
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