Peak District

The Peak District, Britain’s first national park, is a land of great natural beauty, visited by millions of people every year.

This New Naturalist volume on the region highlights the wonder and magic of its windswept vistas, rock formations, storied history and fantastic wildlife, revealing its ecological foundations, showing how it has fared over the centuries and projecting what the future might hold.

As a botanist and ecologist who has spent her working life in the Peak District, Penny Anderson brings an ecological perspective, viewing the habitats and their species as an interconnected whole linked to the development of the landscape through its geology and geomorphological processes, while simultaneously weaving in human history and local myths and legends to bring to life the evolution of the area. The Peak District is a special place at an ecological crossroads where many northern and southern species meet. It has splendidly rich wildlife, varied ecosystems and a long history of human interaction with the land, and this book gives a flavour of its diversity and value.

Reviews

Praise for Penny Anderson

‘This timely book provides an excellent treatment … It is useful to have such a fine body of work drawn together in one place for reference. This is a sound scientific work and will be of immense use’ Biologist

‘These contributions will be welcome to practitioners and promoters of habitat creation and conservation’ The Quarterly Review of Biology

‘Thorough … An invaluable guide to professionals and aspiring professionals’ Northeastern Naturalist

Praise for the New Naturalist series

‘Taken either individually or as a whole, they are one of the proudest achievements of modern publishing’ The Sunday Times

‘The series is an amazing achievement’ Times Literary Supplement

‘The books are glorious to own’ Independent

About the author

Penny Anderson is a professional ecologist and botanist, and an adopted northerner, having lived in the Peak District since 1972, and chaired the Peak Park Wildlife Advisory Group for 21 years.

Penny has written management and restoration plans for large parts of the Peak District for the National Park Authority, Water Companies and the National Trust. She co-authored Wild Flowers and Other Plants of the Peak District with Dave Shimwell in 1981. She has also developed new ways of assessing and restoring upland habitats like heathland and blanket bog. In 1998, Penny co-authored a book with the late Oliver Gilbert, Habitat Creation and Repair, and she still runs courses and gives lectures on habitat creation, restoration and management. She also regularly carries out surveys and condition assessments voluntarily for the National Trust, Natural England and the local Wildlife Trusts and contributes to local species recording.