Heaths are amongst the most threatened habitats in lowland Britain.  Treatment with lime and fertilisers has eliminated heathland from counties such as Cambridgeshire, though significant areas survive in Breckland and in Bedfordshire.  The course will look at local heaths and compare them with more extensive examples in the north and west of Britain.  It will introduce the flowers of heathland and how heaths are shaped by climate and management.

Working for 40 years as a plant ecologist, mostly at Monks Wood, Owen’s research focused on transport routes, on wetlands and on combining productive agriculture with effective conservation.  Now retired, he divides his time between researching and writing about the Fenland and working on conservation projects in his other home of Romania.