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