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Xany data are available on the effeots of Land-uae and management
.
on upland soils in general but few refer apeoificaUy to the Lake
Districl; in spite of inoreasing public interest in the use of tb
area d h g the past few decades. PearsaU '(19501, and more
recently, Pearsall & Pennington (I 973) summarized available data
aa soils, vegetation and land-use and pm~ided the relevant
historical. background,
Both publications stressed the beneficial
effects of trees in maintaking and restoa %oil fertility and the
effeclt of leaching of nutrients from the soil by the high
miafalS which occurs in uplaxla amas in western Br5.W. Pearaall
(1950) emphasized the loneterm nutrient extractive- effect of sheep-
grazing whereas Pearsall & Pe-gbon
m the ha-
(1 973)' placed mom emphasis
effeots of deforestation and the need for soil
consemation in the M o Didrict, partiaulrsrly by re-affomataticn.
Publicetion of Pearsail and Per-r&@on*s book stimulated the holding
of a meeting of rapresentat ives of farmers, foresters, amenity
organizations, conservationists, planners and -search aoientista
in K d a l , Cumbria in October 1974 to identiQ and diacuas local
soil pmb2erns.
The meeting, t'Soila and ?dm in the Lake Matrict ', was
sponsored by the Nature Conselvanoy Cowoil. One of the papers
pmsented, mcarned with t ha eff eot s of woodland and forest in a
historioal cmt&, ms gubEshed moerrtly (Chard, f 975). The
present paper is an expanded version of another of the papers and
is presented here for discussicn prior to final draft;& of a surraDary
for the Countryside Cdssion (rlppendix bsl'm), It views soil
as a resaurce and also as part of an ecolecal system of htemctbg
parts.
As a resouroe, -soil must be conserved, that is, used d soly
so that it is maintained in a suitable o wla ion for a vafiety of
land-uses ia the long term as well as Ln the short term.