Environmental Statement volume 4 - Chiltern Evergreen3

Industrial activities at Abingdon and Didcot, and inparticular the power station, visually dominate much of theopen agricultural character of the Vale landscape. Furthervariation in land cover is provided by the fruit orchardsalong the Greensand ledge below the Chalk downs whichintroduce local contrast and variety.●●●●The Changing CountrysideLoss of hedgerows to field enlargements.Large dominating developments and structures in the flatlandscape such as Didcot Power Station and associatedpylon lines.Pressures from new roads and road improvements.Localised recreation pressures.Selected ReferencesRichards Moorehead and Laing Ltd, (1989), BuckinghamshireTrees and Forestry Strategy: Volumes 1, 2 and 3, RichardsMoorehead and Laing, Clwyd.Reed, M (1979), The Buckinghamshire Landscape, Hodder andStoughton, London.Emery, F (1974), The Oxfordshire Landscape, Hodder andStoughton, London.Martin, A F and Steel, R W (eds), (1954), The OxfordRegion, Oxford University Press, London.Anderson, J R L (1970), The Upper Thames, Eyre andSpottiswoode, London.Shaping the Future●●New woodland planting should be considered in manyparts of the area. Trees – particularly the black poplar –are important landscape features.Many hedgerows are in need of restoration andreplanting.The openfloodplain of theVale inOxfordshirecreating a flat‘chequer board’agriculturallandscape withoccasional smallwoods andhedgerows.SIMON MELVILLE/ENGLISH NATURE52