A definitive natural history of the Yorkshire Dales, covering the range of wildlife habitats, rich cultural heritage and ecological history of one of our best-loved National Parks.The Yorkshire Dales National Park is a special place: its outstanding scenery and the diversity of habitats is perhaps unrivalled in any other National Park in Britain. This rich biodiversity has provided a great attraction for naturalists over several centuries. But to fully appreciate the present-day plant and animal communities, their status and the constraints upon them, it is important to have an appreciation of the geology and landscape history of the National Park, including the role that human populations have played in modifying and shaping their environment.In this long-anticipated New Naturalist volume, John Lee introduces the National Park, exploring both its geology and geomorphology, and describing the role of early naturalists and the Yorkshire Naturalists Union in recording and understanding the natural history of the Dales. He describes individual major habitats or groups of habitats which underline the ecological importance of the Dales. A chapter on land-use history covers the earliest settlement times to the modern day, and he focuses in particular on the most iconic plant of the Dales, the Lady’s Slipper Orchid, arguably the rarest of native British plants which until recently was thought to be confined to the Dales. Lee takes an historical approach, describing its near eradication and early attempts to conserve it (including the establishment of a secret society), concluding with recent scientific conservation approaches. He also looks at the ecology of The Dales in light of changes in climate, agricultural and environmental policies, as well as increasing visitor pressure.