Britons are stereotypically obsessed by the country's rainy weather, points out Guy Shrubsole, above in Wistman's Wood on Dartmoor. 'How very British, then,' he says, 'to have rainforests'. Photo: Harper Collins
Britons are stereotypically obsessed by the country's rainy weather, points out Guy Shrubsole, above in Wistman's Wood on Dartmoor. 'How very British, then,' he says, 'to have rainforests'. Photo: Harper Collins
Britons are stereotypically obsessed by the country's rainy weather, points out Guy Shrubsole, above in Wistman's Wood on Dartmoor. 'How very British, then,' he says, 'to have rainforests'. Photo: Harper Collins
Britons are stereotypically obsessed by the country's rainy weather, points out Guy Shrubsole, above in Wistman's Wood on Dartmoor. 'How very British, then,' he says, 'to have rainforests'. Photo: Har

Weekend

One man's mission to bring back the lost rainforests of Britain

In an extract from his new book, Guy Shrubsole argues that the first step to restoring these magical places is remembering we once had them

Guy Shrubsole

May 19, 2023

  • English
  • Arabic

I didn’t really believe that Britain was a rainforest nation until I moved to Devon. Visiting woods around the edge of Dartmoor, in lost valleys and steep-sided gorges, I found places exuberant with life. I spotted branches dripping with mosses, festooned with lichens, liverworts and polypody ferns. I was enraptured. Surely, I thought, such lush places belonged in the tropics.

But it’s true. Few people realise that Britain harbours fragments of a globally rare habitat: temperate rainforest.

A temperate rainforest is a wood wet and mild enough for plants to grow on other plants. Temperate rainforest is actually rarer than the tropical variety: it covers just 1 per cent of the world’s surface. The temperate rainforest “biome”, or set of ecosystems, is strung across the globe, where oceanic currents bring warm winds and torrential downpours.

Rainforests exist along the north-west coast of the US and Canada; on the southern edge of Chile; in Japan and Korea; across Tasmania and New Zealand; and the western seaboard of Europe – particularly the Atlantic fringes of the British Isles.

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Awestruck by what I found in Devon, I spent months delving into what’s known about these extraordinary places. During my research, I came across an astonishing map made by the ecologist Christopher Ellis showing the “bioclimatic zone” suitable for temperate rainforest in Britain – that is, the areas warm and damp enough for such a habitat to thrive.

This zone covers about 11 million acres (4.4 million hectares) of Britain – a staggering 20 per cent of the country. Once, this vast area would likely have been covered with rainforest; but no longer. The entire woodland cover of Britain today is just 13 per cent, and much of that is regimented plantations of conifer, planted for timber.

As I got used to the idea, it became obvious that rainforests belong here. We’re stereotypically obsessed by our rainy weather. How very British, then, to have rainforests. And, as I was to discover, half-forgotten memories of rainforests are woven into our myths and legends, and feature fleetingly in poetry and prose from some of our greatest writers. But why have we managed to so comprehensively excise Britain’s rainforests from our cultural memory?

Left: A map showing the 20 per cent of Britain where the climate is suitable for temperate rainforest to thrive. Right: The surviving fragments covering less than 1 per cent of the country. Photo: Harper Collins
Left: A map showing the 20 per cent of Britain where the climate is suitable for temperate rainforest to thrive. Right: The surviving fragments covering less than 1 per cent of the country. Photo: Harper Collins

Ellis’s map describes a damp arc across the west of the country. It’s at its most expansive on the wet west coast of Scotland; flows down through the Lake District and the Pennines; washes across Wales’s uplands, from Snowdonia to the Brecon Beacons; and soaks parts of the West Country, particularly Exmoor, Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor.

It’s hard to appreciate the awe and beauty of a temperate rainforest without visiting one yourself. Their rarity and remoteness mean most people in Britain have probably never seen one. My first, abiding memory is how lush and green it all was. All woods are green in summer, of course: but our rainforests are green all year round. Even when the leaves have fallen from the trees, they glow with a verdant luminosity.

I remember the earthy smell of fungus and leafmould, the distant roar of a river in spate, the drip-drip of falling rain. A visit to a rainforest feels like going into a cathedral. Sunlight streams through the stained-glass windows of translucent leaves, picking out the arches of tree trunks with their haloes of moss. They’re places that at once teem with life, and yet have a sepulchral stillness.

Resembling a bug-eyed monster out of science fiction movies, Coleema fasciculare, or 'octopus suckers', is a jelly lichen found in the temperate rainforests of western Scotland. All photos: Harper Collins
Resembling a bug-eyed monster out of science fiction movies, Coleema fasciculare, or 'octopus suckers', is a jelly lichen found in the temperate rainforests of western Scotland. All photos: Harper Collins
Degelia atlantica, a lichen found in the very wettest parts of Britain's hyper-oceanic zone, resembles a cluster of scallop shells, forming a velvety grey mat over branches
Degelia atlantica, a lichen found in the very wettest parts of Britain's hyper-oceanic zone, resembles a cluster of scallop shells, forming a velvety grey mat over branches
There are various species of Sticta lichens, many of which have the dubious distinction of smelling like rotting fish when wet. Above, Sticta sylvatica in Ceunant Llennyrch
There are various species of Sticta lichens, many of which have the dubious distinction of smelling like rotting fish when wet. Above, Sticta sylvatica in Ceunant Llennyrch
Polypody ferns, whose name means 'many-footed', creeps along branches by sending out horizontal roots, lending Britain's rainforest trees a green halo
Polypody ferns, whose name means 'many-footed', creeps along branches by sending out horizontal roots, lending Britain's rainforest trees a green halo
'String-of-sausages' lichen (Usnea articulata) hangs like an eggshell-green necklace off branches in West Country rainforests, sometimes festooning entire trees
'String-of-sausages' lichen (Usnea articulata) hangs like an eggshell-green necklace off branches in West Country rainforests, sometimes festooning entire trees
Lobaria scrobiculata is the gunmetal-blue cousin of tree lungwort
Lobaria scrobiculata is the gunmetal-blue cousin of tree lungwort
The beautiful Ptilium, an uncommon moss found in northern woods, glows gold and is shaped like an ostrich feather
The beautiful Ptilium, an uncommon moss found in northern woods, glows gold and is shaped like an ostrich feather
Tree lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria), thought by medieval herbalists to be a cure for respiratory diseases, in Glasdrum
Tree lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria), thought by medieval herbalists to be a cure for respiratory diseases, in Glasdrum
This species of liverwort, Scapania ornithopodioides, has an unusual scent, described by one bryologist as 'like unwrapping a present'
This species of liverwort, Scapania ornithopodioides, has an unusual scent, described by one bryologist as 'like unwrapping a present'
One of the weirdest denizens of Britain's rainforests, hazel gloves fungus (Hypocreopsis rhododendri) is thought to parasite another fungal species, the equally bizarre glue crust fungus (Hymenochaete corrugata)
One of the weirdest denizens of Britain's rainforests, hazel gloves fungus (Hypocreopsis rhododendri) is thought to parasite another fungal species, the equally bizarre glue crust fungus (Hymenochaete corrugata)
Lobaria virens loves the dampest parts of the Lake District, Wales, Scotland and the West Country. The orange discs are the lichen's fruiting bodies
Lobaria virens loves the dampest parts of the Lake District, Wales, Scotland and the West Country. The orange discs are the lichen's fruiting bodies
Hart's-tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium) lolls from earthen banks, fleshy and glistening
Hart's-tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium) lolls from earthen banks, fleshy and glistening

The trees that make up Britain’s rainforests are both familiar and strangely alien. The mainstay of our wet Atlantic woods are oak trees. Yet they’re quite unlike the tall, straight oaks of lowland England. By contrast, our rainforest oaks tend to be stunted and small, windblown and gnarled – hunched low to the ground to withstand the gales, their roots clutching at the thin upland soils.

What really marks out a temperate rainforest, however, isn’t the dominant species of tree, but the other plants growing on them. Epiphytes – plants that grow on other plants – are a key indicator. Epiphytic plants aren’t parasites; they simply use the trees as scaffolding, and soak up nutrients from the rain and dampness surrounding them. In Britain, the most common epiphytes are lichens, bryophytes – a grouping that includes mosses and liverworts – and ferns.

Many rainforest trees are so heavily garlanded with beardy lichens that they resemble Christmas trees hung with tinsel. Others are covered with a spreading filigree of liverworts, running like dark-brown veins over the skin of the bark. On some trunks, the moss grows like deep-pile carpet. Yet others sprout multicoloured banks of liverworts and lichens like coral reefs: purples and greens, silver and gold. Life is piled upon life.

Indigenous people from Brazil lead a 'rainforest blessing' at the Cormonachan community woodlands in Argyll to coincide with Cop26 at the invitation of the Alliance for Scotland's Rainforest. Photo: Harper Collins
Indigenous people from Brazil lead a 'rainforest blessing' at the Cormonachan community woodlands in Argyll to coincide with Cop26 at the invitation of the Alliance for Scotland's Rainforest. Photo: Harper Collins

Easier to spot from a distance are the polypody ferns. These beautiful, delicate plants love the damp shade and humidity of our western oakwoods. “Polypody”, meaning “many-footed”, refers to the fern’s method of spreading. It sends out horizontal roots called rhizomes that creep along branches, sending up fresh shoots at each interval. Occasionally you find other fern species growing epiphytically on trees, too. In some of our dampest woods, I’ve seen huge clumps of bracken protruding from standing trunks, where a spore has lodged itself in a knothole.

Surrounded by these seemingly primeval plants, I’m transported backwards to the time of the dinosaurs, over 65 million years ago, when ferns first evolved. Rainforests, then, remind us of when giants walked the Earth, when brachiosaurs lumbered through the swamps, eating the fronds of ferns amidst the spore-laden air.

Their usual weather, of course, is wet. Really wet. If you’re lucky enough to visit when the sun’s shining, you’re not really seeing them at their best. For most of the year, they drip continuously with moisture, drip from their canopies, drip from every branch and leaf and stem. The rain runs through, along footpaths that become streams in winter torrents. You’ll return from a visit soaked from head to toe, feeling all the more alive for it.

Not only are they extraordinary places to experience, providing a feast for the senses. They’re also a treasure trove of biodiversity. And the carbon that our rainforest trees are busily soaking up – not just in their trunks, but also via the epiphytic plants that festoon their branches – make them some of our best allies in the fight against the climate crisis.

A dying rainforest in Scotland, destroyed through overgrazing by deer and sheep, draws its last breath. Photo: Harper Collins
A dying rainforest in Scotland, destroyed through overgrazing by deer and sheep, draws its last breath. Photo: Harper Collins

This loss of cultural memory, this great forgetting that we once had rainforests, is almost as heartbreaking as the loss of the forests themselves. It points to the phenomenon that ecologists call “shifting baseline syndrome”: society’s ability to grow accustomed to environmental losses. What appears to us today as a “green and pleasant land” is, in reality, a desert compared to the glory of what once existed.

Not everyone has forgotten, of course. Part of the job of environmentalists is to see the damage wrought by humanity, no matter how much it might hurt to do so. Dozens of pioneering botanists, bryologists, lichen specialists and woodland ecologists have explored these habitats over the decades, publishing academic papers and raising the alarm about the ongoing threats they face. And yet … Britain’s rainforests remain under-recognised, unmapped and largely unacknowledged by politicians and a wider public.

I read every study I could find voraciously, following in the footsteps of those who’ve explored our rainforests before. But as I went further, the footsteps became fainter, the path overgrown. Why was there no proper map of where Britain’s temperate rainforests survive? The more experts I spoke to, the less certain I became that this precious habitat was fully understood. So I decided to start a blog, “Lost Rainforests of Britain”, to try to drum up public support for protecting and restoring these amazing places. I created a Google Map to gather examples of where fragments cling on.

Wistman's Wood on Dartmoor, with its stunted moss-covered oaks, is often thought of as being moribund. Yet the wood has doubled in size thanks to a temporary reduction in grazing pressures. All photos: Harper Collins
Wistman's Wood on Dartmoor, with its stunted moss-covered oaks, is often thought of as being moribund. Yet the wood has doubled in size thanks to a temporary reduction in grazing pressures. All photos: Harper Collins
The 'lonely wood of Wistman' has given rise to many legends and tales of gothic horror. The 'Wisht hounds' said to haunt it probably inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'
The 'lonely wood of Wistman' has given rise to many legends and tales of gothic horror. The 'Wisht hounds' said to haunt it probably inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'
The Dizzard in Cornwall, an ancient rainforest of gnarled and shrunken oaks, is thought to be thousands of years old
The Dizzard in Cornwall, an ancient rainforest of gnarled and shrunken oaks, is thought to be thousands of years old
Ballachuan Wood on the Isle of Seil, western Scotland, is home to a prime example of the vanishingly rare Atlantic hazelwood, which may have stood on this spot since the last Ice Age
Ballachuan Wood on the Isle of Seil, western Scotland, is home to a prime example of the vanishingly rare Atlantic hazelwood, which may have stood on this spot since the last Ice Age
The ancient temperate rainforests at Ceunant Llennyrch and Coed Felenrhyd in north Wales are ecologically important but also culturally significant as the site of a battle in 'The Mabinogion', a book of Welsh myths
The ancient temperate rainforests at Ceunant Llennyrch and Coed Felenrhyd in north Wales are ecologically important but also culturally significant as the site of a battle in 'The Mabinogion', a book of Welsh myths
To Guy Shrubsole, a visit to a rainforest such as Coed Relubbus in north Wales, feels like entering a cathedral
To Guy Shrubsole, a visit to a rainforest such as Coed Relubbus in north Wales, feels like entering a cathedral
The twisted, octopus-like branches that characterise many British rainforest trees are on display at Black Tor Beare, in Dartmoor
The twisted, octopus-like branches that characterise many British rainforest trees are on display at Black Tor Beare, in Dartmoor
The branch of this oak tree, in the Dart Valley, Devon, has practically disappeared under the weight of mosses and ferns growing on it
The branch of this oak tree, in the Dart Valley, Devon, has practically disappeared under the weight of mosses and ferns growing on it
William Wordsworth took inspiration from the magnificent Atlantic oakwoods of Borrowdale in the Lake District, above, and regretted how the region had been deforested over the centuries
William Wordsworth took inspiration from the magnificent Atlantic oakwoods of Borrowdale in the Lake District, above, and regretted how the region had been deforested over the centuries

I put a call-out on Twitter for people to send in photos of potential rainforest sites they’d visited. I was overwhelmed by the response. Hundreds of people sent submissions, deluging me with photos of the beautiful wet woodlands that they knew and loved; trees covered in mosses and ferns, thriving in hidden valleys and inaccessible gorges. My email inbox overflowed with messages expressing surprise and delight at the realisation that the woods they’d been walking in turned out to be temperate rainforest.

It felt like I had struck a chord. Perhaps it was just curiosity at the fact that we have rainforests here in Britain; perhaps it was part of the wider public yearning to reconnect to nature, brought about by months locked down in our homes. But maybe this subject also taps into something deeper in the national psyche: the sense that, through our destructive actions, we have lost something profoundly important from the natural world.

In restoring them, we might yet restore a missing part of ourselves. Because our rainforests aren’t irrevocably lost. Fragments survive. In some parts of Britain, rainforests still thrive. Far from being dying relics from some bygone era, they’re living ecosystems – growing, regenerating and spreading, whenever they’re given half a chance. As Jeff Goldblum memorably intones in Jurassic Park: “Life … finds a way.”

This is an edited extract of The Lost Rainforests of Britain, by Guy Shrubsole, which is available now in paperback (William Collins, £10.99). For more information, visit lostrainforestsofbritain.org or follow the author on Twitter (@guyshrubsole).

The Lost Rainforests of Britain. Photo: Harper Collins
The Lost Rainforests of Britain. Photo: Harper Collins
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Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)

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Tearful appearance

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UAE fixtures

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More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
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  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg

Rating: 4/5

PSL FINAL

Multan Sultans v Peshawar Zalmi
8pm, Thursday
Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi

At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

 

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

 

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

 

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30 

 

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

 

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

 

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

TICKETS

For tickets for the two-day Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) event, entitled Dubai Invasion 2019, on September 27 and 28 go to www.meraticket.com.

Scoreline

Al Wasl 1 (Caio Canedo 90 1')

Al Ain 2 (Ismail Ahmed 3', Marcus Berg 50')

Red cards: Ismail Ahmed (Al Ain) 77'

MATCH INFO

Manchester United 1 (Fernandes pen 2') Tottenham Hotspur 6 (Ndombele 4', Son 7' & 37' Kane (30' & pen 79, Aurier 51')

Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)

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match info

Union Berlin 0

Bayern Munich 1 (Lewandowski 40' pen, Pavard 80')

Man of the Match: Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich)

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Results

2.30pm: Dubai Creek Tower – Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: Marmara Xm, Gary Sanchez (jockey), Abdelkhir Adam (trainer)

3pm: Al Yasmeen – Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: AS Hajez, Jesus Rosales, Khalifa Al Neyadi

3.30pm: Al Ferdous – Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: Soukainah, Sebastien Martino, Jean-Claude Pecout

4pm: The Crown Prince Of Sharjah – Prestige (PA) Dh200,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: AF Thayer, Ray Dawson, Ernst Oertel

4.30pm: Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup – Handicap (TB) Dh200,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: George Villiers, Antonio Fresu, Bhupat Seemar

5pm: Palma Spring – Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Es Abu Mousa, Antonio Fresu, Abubakar Daud

Updated: May 19, 2023, 6:27 PM`
UKEnvironmentClimate changeWeekend