Anthropogenic heath habitats are a
cultural landscape that can be found worldwide in locations as diverse as
Northern and
Western Europe, the
Americas,
Australia,
New Zealand,
Madagascar and
New Guinea. These heaths were initially made or expanded by centuries of human clearance of the natural forest and woodland vegetation by
grazing and burning. In some cases, this clearance went so far that parts of the heathland have given way to open spots of pure sand and
sand dunes, with a local climate that, even in Europe, can rise to temperatures of in summer, drying the sand spot bordering the heathland and further raising its vulnerability for wildfires. Referring to heathland in England,
Oliver Rackham says, "Heaths are clearly the product of human activities and need to be managed as heathland; if neglected, they turn into woodland". The conservation value of these human-made heaths has become much more appreciated due to their historical cultural value as habitats; consequently, most heathlands are protected. However, tree incursion also threatens them because of the discontinuation of traditional management techniques, such as grazing and burning, that mediated the landscapes. Some are also threatened by
urban sprawl. Anthropogenic heathlands are maintained artificially by a combination of grazing and periodic burning (known as swailing), or (rarely) mowing; if not so maintained, they are rapidly recolonised by forest or woodland. The recolonising tree species will depend on what is available as the local seed source, and thus it may not reflect the natural vegetation before the heathland became established. == In literature ==