From Alec Cawley
Gerald Legg’s letter on eco-offsetting referred to greater protection likely to be given to chalk grasslands compared with disused industrial land reclaimed by nature (10 August, p 30). These grassland habitats are widely believed to have been deforested in Neolithic times, then kept in their current state by the grazing of farmed animals.
Arboriculturally, they are as much a disaster area as the worst industrial brownfield site.
Newbury, Berkshire, UK
