Last month I went to a talk at the University of Leeds all about rewilding in the UK. The talks were given by George Monbiot and Alan Watson-Featherson.
George described how although there are many upland reserves in the UK, they are only maintained to have the lowest level of biodiversity. This is because many years ago, someone decided that heather and scrub should cover most of the land despite the fact that forests would have historically covered these areas. To prevent the regrowth of the forests, sheep were used to over graze the land along with burning and cutting. George found that this is a problem all over the country as in lowlands there are few trees, but, in the uplands, where they would naturally be more, there are even less.