Wooded grasslands in Netherlands

How/why/by, whom was it created?

Research: Hans Renes; upload: Bénédicte Gaillard. The entries are still in process

Occurence

Wood pasture

• Medieval systems

• Pastures wih trees

• Grazed woodlands

• Hunting parks

All these landscapes have all but disappeared in the Netherlands, but are recently reintroduced in nature management

• Early modern systems: particularly orchards

Physical geography: description

Orchards

• Until the 19th century: small-scale and dispersed. Larger density in and around towns.

• 1880s: grain crisis, globalisation, modernisation. Proces of self-strengthening specialisation

• concentration in a few regions

• in those regions industry, education, marketing infrastructure

Is it combined with/connected to something typical (traditional)?

Old orchards: ‘high’ trees, individually planted, many different types (spreading of risks, income, workload), combined with pasture (‘fruit pastures’). Located near farms.
Modern orchards: larger (South-Limburg: from valleys to plateaus), aiming at maximum production, low and uniform trees (possibility of mechanisation). Look very different on air photographs.
Some of the old orchards are preserved for reasons of landscape and biodiversity. Much work done by volunteers. Profit from growing interest in local products.

	1900	1950	1980	1990
Old orchards South-Limburg (1900 = 100)	100	142	51	51

Monday, September 25, 2017 - 15:41

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