What advice would you give people who think they’ve found a rainforest near where they live? How would they know, and who should they tell? If you think you've found a fragment of temperate rainforest near you that's very exciting! The clues to look for, in the first instance, are epiphytes. One of the easier ones to recognise is polypody fern, which in our wet western forests grows in profusion on the branches of oak and ash trees. Some even better 'rainforest indicators', though, are the various rare species of lichens, mosses and liverworts that thrive in Britain's temperate rainforests. Some are unmistakable, like tree lungwort. Others can be trickier to recognise – the various little Sticta lichens are more recognisable by their weirdly fishy smell than by their looks! I can thoroughly recommend getting the lichen, moss and liverwort identification guides that the charity Plantlife publish. If you get really into exploring these miniature worlds, a 10x magnification hand lens is essential. If you think you've stumbled across
a lost British rainforest, please tell me about it! Back in spring 2021, I started a crowdsourced Google map of potential rainforest sites in Britain, to which hundreds of people have since submitted photos and location details. You can find out more details and submit sites at
lostrainforestsofbritain.org. When you visit a temperate
rainforest, please of course treat it with the utmost respect – they're the only fragments we've got left. Remember the essentials of the Countryside Code – leave no trace (and ideally pick up any litter you find), take only photos, and keep your dog on the lead to avoid disturbing nesting birds or livestock.
It sounds achievable – if we could bring back our rainforests, what benefits might we see? Like all woodlands, our rainforests lock up carbon in the soils, branches and trunks, making them some of our best allies in the fight against the climate crisis. Temperate rainforests, incredibly, may also be locking up carbon in the soils that form on their branches, from all the generations of mosses and plants that live and die on them! They're also amazingly biodiverse places, harbouring a wealth of globally rare species; besides the breathtaking plant and fungal life, our Atlantic rainforests provide homes for declining bird species like pied flycatchers, redstarts and wood warblers. Some of the rainforests around Dartmoor and in Wales are the only known British habitats for the vanishingly rare blue ground beetle – I've seen it feeding at night on giant slugs! We absolutely have to do everything we can to protect and restore these amazing places. The benefits are not just ecological, but also cultural and spiritual – everyone I've met who's ever visited one of our rainforests is enthralled by how magical they are. Bringing back Britain's lost rainforests ought to be a shared mission that can give us all hope in dark times.
Read Dan’s review of The Lost Rainforests of Britain on page p.27.
We’ve always been fond of temperate rainforests, so over 20 years ago Eden planted a young oakwood in the Outdoor Gardens. You can see how it’s coming along in the Wild Cornwall exhibit (spoiler it’s doing pretty well!).
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