Planting Temperate Rainforest in Devon

In March 2024, CAP funders paid to plant 1,600 trees to extend a pocket of the UK's precious temperate rainforest in Exmoor National Park.

Rainforest in the UK? Pockets, but most definitely there.

The UK's Temperate Rainforest

There are hidden, magical refuges of temperate rainforest in the UK that most people don't realise exist. These tiny scattered woodlands cover less than 1% of the countryside and are located in hyperoceanic climatic zones. They receive heavy annual rainfall and have mild, year-round temperatures that provide the perfect humid conditions for a diverse range of life.

DIVERSE LIFE

Temperate rainforests receive up to 200 days of annual rainfall giving the moisture needed for a world rich in lush, green mosses, ferns and lichens. Plants like String-of-sausages, Tattered Jelly-skin and Tumbling Kittens thrive on tree bark, boudlers and around the edges of the meandering streams. They provide habitat for rare birds like pied flycatchers and redstarts, and mammals such as pine martens.

NEW TREES

Only fragments of these rainforests remain due to logging, grazing & development. As a conservation priority, in March 2024 CAP funds paid for the planting of 1600 trees in Exmoor National Park's temperate rainforest zone. The Exmoor National Park Authority is focused on restoring and expanding these habitats, carefully linking the new woodland with the old.