Volunteers have planted more than 2,500 native trees on pasture in southwest England, part of a larger effort to recreate the temperate rainforest that once dominated much of the British Isles.
The Devon Wildlife Trust aims to plant a total of 7,000 trees by the end of this winter, including oak, rowan, alder, hazel, birch, willow, and holly. Plantings will cover most of the site, which spans 75 acres.
“Crucial in this transformation have been local people who have worked so hard in all conditions to get the trees in the ground,” Claire Inglis, of the Devon Wildlife Trust, told The Guardian.
Rainforests once covered large swaths of Ireland and the western edge of Great Britain, but Celtic rainforests, as they are known, now cover just 1 percent of the region. These woodlands host an array of birds, including pied flycatchers, woodcocks, and redstarts, as well as mosses, lichens, ferns, and other flora that thrive in damp conditions.
The project in Devon is part of a broader push by The Wildlife Trusts, a national umbrella group that includes the Devon Wildlife Trust. Similar efforts are underway in Cornwall, the Isle of Man, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
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