Woodland decline in upland Scotland

The recent article by Fenton (Fenton JH. 2008. A postulated natural origin for the open landscape of upland Scotland. Plant Ecology & Diversity 1:115–127) has argued that the landscapes of upland Scotland are treeless because of long-term deterioration of soil conditions. There are reasons for thinking that this might be the case in the absence of human activity. However, there have been considerable anthropogenic pressures on these landscapes for several millenia, documented archaeologically and palaeoecologically. Attempting to exclude these pressures from the discussion can only lead to an incomplete and misleading account of a complex series of changes involving an interaction which includes natural vegetational and environmental processes, climatic changes and human pressures.