#218: Natural History Reading List #15: 'The Lost Rainforests of Britain' by Guy Shrubsole

 I have a copy of this book and will be reading it when I get a moment.

Delighted that The Lost Rainforests of Britain has been shortlisted for the ⁦@wainwrightprize⁩ this year - I’ll be in Kendal on 14th Sept to chat nature recovery with other shortlisted authors :) Filmed this clip today in the temperate rainforest of Black Tor Copse: pic.twitter.com/eabi1n901V

— Guy Shrubsole (@guyshrubsole) September 9, 2023

Congratulations to Guy for his success...  

The investigation of temperate rainforests would be a suitable field visit opportunity for those who teach in the appropriate areas, depending on access, and the issue of damaging the very ecosystem that we are also told is fragile.

I've been to Wistman's Wood several times over the years. It's a dramatic location. I first went on an undergraduate field trip in the mid 1980s.

It was great to join @wildcardrewild & hundreds of other Devon residents yesterday to march for a wilder Dartmoor.

The Duchy has started to regenerate Wistman's Wood - there is much more to be done to restore temperate rainforest, peat & heath on Dartmoor https://t.co/ol7BVZLLsW

— Guy Shrubsole (@guyshrubsole) October 1, 2023

#139: Lydford Gorge: temperate rainforests

A news report from the BBC explores the UK's few temperate rainforests. I have mentioned Guy Shrubsole's book before - a copy is in my Natural History library and will be featured on the blog as well and in the reading lists we are making.

The story looks at Lydford Gorge in Devon, a place I've visited a few times over the years.

A reminder of the need to protect what we have. There are some particularly rare lichens in the woods, including one in Somerset which is the only known location where it is found.

The article says:

Lichens are a particularly unusual class of organisms found in temperate rainforests.

The plant-like living things are made up of fungi growing in association with other life forms, such as algae. There are more than 2,000 species in Britain and Ireland alone, many of which are found in temperate rainforests,

The horsehair lichen Bryoria smithii is known at only two rainforest sites in Britain and Arthonia thoriana, a rare comma lichen, is not known anywhere else in the world other than at Horner Wood in Somerset. 

Temperate rainforests are made up of oak, birch, ash, pine and hazel woodland, but the ash trees are suffering from ash dieback.