Lowland heath occurs on a range of acidic pH < 5, impoverished soils that are often sandy and free draining, characteristically podsols.
Pollen grain carbon dating has indicated that it has existed in the UK for 14,000 years[citation needed] as the ice-caps retreated.
From then onwards agricultural and transport technology improved, allowing nutrients to be put back into the soil, non-heathland type crops to grow, or the heath was simply no longer managed as in the past.
Heathland succession moves from grasses and bracken to gorses and heather, and finally to woodland (birch, pine and oaks).
Threats to heathland include changes in farmland; afforestation; fire; lack of management (overgrowth), for example scrub and bracken encroachment; housing development; quarrying; nutrient enrichment (often dog faeces - Shaw et al. 1995); pine and silver birch, which readily establish and shade the surrounding vegetation; ploughing; and predatory cats (urban heathland sites).
Staffordshire has areas of lowland heath at Cannock Chase[2] and Wetley Moor,[3] both of which are Sites of Special Scientific Interest.