Meadows
Moist temperate regions have some rain all the year round, with warm summers and fairly cold winters. Such regions once had huge forests of deciduous trees, such as ash, beech, chestnut, hickory, maple and oak. These trees shed their leaves in winter in order to protect themselves against the cold. Such forests once grew over most of western Europe, northern China and the eastern USA, areas which now contain some of the world's most densely populated regions. Most of these forests have been cut down. Their wood was used for building and as a fuel. In the USA, the forests largely vanished in about 300 years and the land was used for farming. The wildlife dwindled and soil erosion became a serious problem. This also happened on the lower slopes of the mountains of South Island, New Zealand. Britain's forests were replaced by a pleasant landscape of plowed fields, river meadows, hedgerows and occasional clumps of woodland. But the destruction of forests led to a great decline in wildlife.
