Life finds a way: in search of Englandâs lost, forgotten rainforests
Gnarled oak trees in Wistmanâs Wood, an eight-acre fragment of temperate rainforest in Devon. Photograph: Ian Dagnall/Alamy
Much of Britainâs temperate rainforest has been destroyed â but it can sometimes regenerate. The race is on to map what survives and restore what we can
Thu 29 Apr 2021 01.00 EDT
Few people realise that England has fragments of a globally rare habitat: temperate rainforest. I didnât really believe it until I moved to Devon last year and started visiting some of these incredible habitats. Temperate rainforests are exuberant with life. One of their defining characteristics is the presence of epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants, often in such damp and rainy places. In woods around the edge of Dartmoor, in lost valleys and steep-sided gorges, Iâve spotted branches dripping with mosses, festooned with lichens, liverworts and polypody ferns.
Sat 10 Apr 2021 02.00 EDT
Last modified on Sat 10 Apr 2021 03.41 EDT
This must be the longest case of cabin fever ever. For one reason or another, I haven’t so much as wet a line since last summer. Overdosing on the laptop by day, binge-watching TV by night, the closest I’ve got to the river is via satellite mapping. It’s been a virtual world all round, but at least there’s been plenty of time to plan escapes with rod and line, hoping for the day I might be allowed to take them. This is a year for homegrown fishing if ever there was one, so where to go for that watery wilderness fix?