Richard Oram

“Throughout the earlier Middle Ages, the prosperity, fertility and peacefulness of a kingdom was often seen as God's judgement on its ruler. In the case of David I, a godly king presided over an era of unprecedented economic growth, in which agriculture was aided by the spread of new agricultural technologies, rising population levels and intensifying pressure on Scotland's natural resources.”
― Richard Oram, A Land Won from Waste: Scotland AD 400 - 1400

“Having set aside the red herring of 'forest', however, we are still left with clear evidence for the survival of woods in many parts of the Highlands that are likely to have been at least as extensive as the semi-natural woods that survive today. This was richly diverse woodland. It constituted habitat for a broad range of wildlife, mammals, birds and insects, and supported a diversity of plant and fungal life that was unique to different types of higher order trees. While the foregoing discussion has concentrated on a series of heavy demand uses for that woodland - as wood pasture, as a source of pannage and for timber and fuel needs - we must also remember its far broader role as a place for forage. Here was a source of forage foods, from nuts and berries to wild bee honey, of edible fungi and of inedible varieties and lichens for dyes and medicinal uses. The loss of woodland impoverished everyone through the loss of these multiple functions, services and resources that it contained and sustained.”
― Richard Oram, A Land Won from Waste: Scotland AD 400 - 1400