I FOUND A RAINFOREST AND LOST A DAY
After a man of the match performance by Autumn this year, when I spent days capturing the changing season, you’d think I’d be tired of more time in woodland. Not a bit of it.
My love of woodland goes back to my childhood (yes, I can remember that far back !) when we spent every waking hour exploring local woods; climbing trees, falling out of trees, making dens and rope-swings, and occasionally straying into another “gang’s” territory. We were so lucky to have this great green playground on our doorstep and, in the main, to ourselves. It provided frogspawn in the Spring, conkers in the Autumn, and deadfall for making fires when playing cowboys and indians at any time of year.
Simpler times maybe, but they invested me with a lifelong love of being immersed in a woodland environment. Of course, nothing lasts forever and I well remember the day we discovered that a school was being built to serve our estate and the woods would be torn up. I thought about them every day I attended that school until moving on to high school and teenage years. A time for moving on in all senses, leaving much behind.
So now I find myself in the fortunate position of being able to spend lots of time exploring the woodland valleys of my new home in South Wales. I still have that sense of wonder and after 10 years here I’m still finding new places to visit. Which brings me nicely to the story of this month’s blog.
As Autumn ended I paid a first visit to a remote woodland in a steep-sided valley hoping to find compositions for Winter. Woodland can look pretty spectacular in the right conditions at this time of year, when bare branches finally get their chance to be the star of the show. After a couple of productive hours and a well earned coffee break I decided to move to the far end of the tree line and grab a view down the valley. Halfway there I noticed a holloway leading to what looked like a darker area so, on instinct or by pure luck, I followed the sunken path. Before long the character of the woodland began to change and I half held my breath as I had a feeling I knew what lay ahead and I’m so pleased to say I was right!
As the track became more and more boulder-strewn and there was an increase in mosses, I knew I was about to chance on a small isolated remnant of rainforest. Now I know what you’re thinking so I’ll take a little time to explain.
Britain has remains of what is known as temperate rainforest. This gives a clear distinction from tropical rainforest but it’s as ecologically important. (Incidentally, the term rainforest was coined in the 1990s as an alternative to “jungle”, which had imperialist connotations). Temperate rainforests are defined as woodland where it’s wet and mild enough for plants to grow on other plants and is in fact rarer than tropical rainforest, covering just 1% of the earth’s surface.. They are so rare in the UK that until around 10 years ago no-one had mapped them but it’s fairly safe to say that their distribution is now mainly on Britain and Ireland’s western Atlantic coasts, hence the term Atlantic temperate rainforest.
Between the end of the last Ice Age, around 12000 years ago, and the start of the Neolithic period (circa 6000 years ago) Britain was almost completely covered in virgin woodland. That huge expanse of endless forestry, now commonly referred to as “the Wildwood” was untouched by human activity but that didn’t last long. Imagine what that must have looked like!
So what happened to “the Wildwood” and it’s large element of temperate rainforests? Sad to say, we destroyed them. A transition from Stone Age hunter gatherers to an agricultural society saw wholesale clearance of Britain’s woodland. Since the Ice Age, humans have removed one third of the world’s tree population, half of which has happened in the last 100 years ! Woodland now covers a mere 13% of Britain and less than 1% of that is temperate rainforest, which mainly survived because of its location on steep hillsides. Temperate rainforest is mainly populated with oak, though not the kind of mighty trees that went to build Henry VIII’s navy. Rather this is sessile oak which is both stunted and twisted but is equally beautiful due to its age and difference. These characteristics most likely saved them from the axe, at least until recently when there have been increased clearances for commercially gown timber.
So now these ancient oases are few, fragmented and small. And I’d found one !! Over thousands of years their population has changed to include holly, rowan, hazel and ash. Some have been found to include birch and hawthorn in remoter upland areas. They are a haven for mosses and lichens as well as rare fungi and are home to a wide range of mammals. They are also a store for large amounts of carbon so their environmental benefit shouldn’t be underestimated. But the romantic in me values them for all of these and other reasons. For me they are the stuff of legends, of Welsh Wizards, of Druids and of Faeries. They come from a time when Magic still held sway in the world and elves and goblins made the forest a place to be feared at night. Ancient bards refer to “the Wildwood” in numerous writings and Tolkien reveres them in The Lord of the Rings. They are in our collective DNA from a million generations and time spent amongst them revives our senses. We have a duty to protect them.
The remaining fragments of temperate rainforest are as much under pressure today as they have been at any time in the last 10,000 years. But people have begun waking up to their importance and legacy. Given the opportunity to regenerate they could spread over time so there’s still a chance to save them. But there has to be a will both politically and environmentally at local and governmental level and that’s a fight that has to be fought each and every day. One of the largest landowners of areas that contain fragments of rainforest is the Duchy of Lancaster but, despite claiming environmental credentials and a love of preserving the past, campaigners have been unable to secure a commitment in writing from His Majesty that will ensure the future of these precious fragments.
Time for an apology. What was meant to be a brief background explanation turned into me sharing my hopes and fears ! I could have written chapters on this subject but I’ll spare you any further downloading (for now at least….).
Finding this gem of an oasis so unexpectedly has been a real gift, one that I hope remains exactly as it is for future generations to visit and appreciate. I obviously won’t tell you where it is, but it’s in a remote location that involves a long, steep walk and it’s invariably raining and cold there which may dissuade the casual observer from paying a visit. Lovely !! It’s so full of character and there was an air of mystery about the place as I stood there imaging the scenes on a freezing misty morning. I couldn’t help thinking of the many feet that had walked these ancients paths and the stories that occurred under the canopy. Had it been home to our ancestors in the distant past?
So instead of having a brief look around, I ended up spending a day there and losing brownie points for leaving chores undone back at home. I spent a long time treading carefully over the boulders and ferns, astonished by the mosses, worts and lichens. The camera stayed in the bag for while until I found a tree with so much character and had to photograph it. The image gives no clues to its location but captures how stunning this small “woodland within a woodland” is. I hope to be able to go back and visit this special place many times before my days are done. I’ll never share it’s location, not for selfish reasons, but because it’s not mine to share.
Despite the horror story of woodland devastation, the future isn’t totally bleak. There are lots of people who are working hard to preserve and expand this precious resource and gains are slowly being made. Reading Guy Shrubsole’s wonderful book “The Lost Rainforests of Britain” was a Damascene moment for me, and I know many more who feel the same. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Guy is at the forefront of campaigns to preserve the remnants and has a way of getting your buy-in without tub thumbing and he makes a compelling case for his and others’ work. It’s something dear to my heart and while I’ll never be an activist I find other ways to support such an important cause.
I’ll be spending lots of time in my new favourite wood over the Winter and can’t wait to see how it changes as Spring approaches. I know how lucky I am to find this tiny remnant so I’m guessing I’ll be losing many more days in the coming months.
