Being deceived about the importance of temperate rainforest for wild nature
Mossy rocks
Temperate rainforest is the new conservation dogma, pushing the envelope of its potential location to ensure that the bandwagon rolls on. Worse still, management of woodlands with a focus solely on the epiphytes of temperate rainforest, the lichens, mosses and liverworts, ignores and puts at risk the woodland wildflowers of ancient woodlands
I have been logging the numbers of fulmars on the sandstone ledges of the cliffs at West Cliff, Whitby, since their return last December, hoping that it would tell me something about the progression of their mating season (1) but it hasn’t. However, the prolonged watchfulness paid off when I spotted the first chick on the 12 July when looking down on one of the nests from a vantage point, then two more a couple of days later from the sands below. There are now seven, and I look forward to watching these fluffy chicks turn into the sleek white head, white body and fully formed grey wings of an adult fulmar. I was pleased to see that fulmars were recognised as one of the key species of the North Yorkshire Coast Sub Area description in the recently released draft of the North Yorkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy where it notes that the hard cliffs along the coast support breeding seabirds (2). Along with kittiwakes and herring gulls, fulmars form the Sea Bird Assemblage of the Focus Species of the strategy (3).
A Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) was a requirement included in the Environment Act 2021 for local authority areas in England to draw up spatial strategies designed to identify and prioritize areas for nature recovery (4,5). They contain a statement of biodiversity priorities for the strategy area as well as a habitat map to guide actions for restoration, creation, and connection of habitat. The draft LNRS for North Yorkshire was developed with a range of local stakeholders along with national agencies (6). It has a priority to enhance habitats for seabirds on North Yorkshire’s coastal cliffs (CST_PO2) but while there is a measure (action) to create and enhance suitable habitat for seabirds on the North Yorkshire coast, there is no indication of how this would be implemented (see CST_M02.5 in (3)). As the DEFRA Policy paper on LNRSs says, there is no requirement that any specific proposed action must be carried out (5). Instead, the proposals are intended to guide where the public, private and voluntary sectors focus their nature recovery efforts for greater collective impact. This is confirmed by North Yorkshire Council, which explains that the LNRS cannot force landowners to make any changes or undertake any actions, nor does it grant any additional protections or change existing protections and restrictions (7). The purpose is for the strategy to be a framework for collaborative, coordinated action for nature by setting out the most beneficial priorities and measures (actions) to enhance and create habitat, and identify by way of a Local Habitat Map where these could be carried out to have the greatest positive impact (8).
A small area of saltmarsh near Whitby
While looking at the priority measures in the strategy for enhancing habitats for seabirds, I noticed that the next priority in the Coastal Priorities section was about saltmarshes. The introduction to the Coastal Priorities section says that North Yorkshire has a very small area of saltmarsh near Whitby, and that this is the only location for the habitat on the coast between Middlesbrough and Spurn Point, thus giving rise to the priority to enhance, expand and connect existing saltmarsh to increase the resilience of this fragmented habitat (see CST_P03 and CST_M03.1 in (3). I had an inkling where this saltmarsh was. I started walking a woodland area that was new to me back in January through which Spital Beck flows out under Spital Bridge and enters the tidal reach of the River Esk in the upper harbour. When I first went there last January, the tide was up and so the estuarine area of the beck was full. On a subsequent visit to the wood in late February, which coincided with low tide, I saw that bare mudflats and an area of intertidal vegetated mud sediment had been uncovered.
I didn’t think much of it at the time. However, it was reading about the priority for saltmarsh in the LNRS at the beginning of July that made me go back there and explore. It was low tide again, and there was hardly any water except for a dribble from the beck. Descending to the bankside, I found sea-milkwort (Lysimachia maritima) and sea plantain (Plantago maritima) in flower, along with areas of late flowering scurvy grass (Cochlearia officinalis) sea arrowgrass (Triglochin maritimum) as well as what looked like sea aster (Tripolium pannonicum) in bud. I was able to hop across the beck/tidal inlet to get to the main part of the vegetated mud sediment and found that it was covered with mainly sea-milkwort, saltmarsh rush (Juncus gerardii) common saltmarsh grass (Puccinellia maritima) sea couch (Elytrigia atherica) and sea aster in bud. Two weeks after that visit, the sea aster was in flower, and I found a patch of sea spurrey (Spergularia media) in flower on the vegetated area that I had missed first time.
When I checked the location of this saltmarsh on the habitat map provided for the LNRS, I found that it was shown as being part of the larger area of Spital Vale Site of Interest for Nature Conservation (SINC) that included the woodland, but confusingly it was labelled as lowland fen, and as well as having a measure associated with it under the priority on saltmarsh, it also had a measure under the priority for lowland fen (see WET_M04.3 in (3) and a snapshot of the mapping in (9)). It is also identified as Lowland Fens (England) in the Priority Habitat Inventory and not Coastal Saltmarsh (England) (see the mapping in (10)). I have no answer to this when clearly there is a saline influence on the selection of plants growing there from the tidal inundation (see Box 1 in (11)) whereas lowland fens are characterised by freshwater species (12).
The slavish dogma of woodland management
I was interested to see what the strategy said about ancient woodlands, given that I recently wrote about Cock Mill and Larpool Woods near Whitby and their exceptional species diversity of Ancient Woodland Indicator plants (13). Woodland cover across North Yorkshire at 11.7% is slightly below the average for England, but there are areas of ancient and long-established woodlands that are regarded as irreplaceable habitats within North Yorkshire (14) and which cover 1.7% (see Table 2 in (2)). Under Woodland Priorities in the strategy, ancient woodlands are said to retain important woodland flora, contribute significantly to biodiversity and ecological resilience, and support a wide range of woodland species (3). A priority is to buffer, enhance, restore and better connect fragmented patches of Ancient Woodland by creating linkages with, and improving the management of, long-established woodland to increase the resilience of these sites and allow for species movement, including more specialist woodland species (see WLD_P03 in (3)). I found Cock Mill and Larpool Woods on the habitat map provided for the LNRS, and they are identified as Irreplaceable Habitat - Ancient Woodland, and shown to form for the most part the Cock Mill and Larpool Woods – Stainsacre Beck SINC (a snapshot of the mapping is in (15)). In terms of the improvement of management, there is a measure to increase the variety of woodland structure and species diversity within existing ancient woodlands by increasing the mix of tree and shrub species, coppice management, glade and woodland ride management, and retention of deadwood (see WLD_M03.4 in (3))
This measure is the slavish dogma of woodland management of the mainstream conservation industry, the incorrigible behaviour that has to improve on wild nature (16-18). It is a rigid and inflexible application of methods that demonstrates a lack of critical thinking and an over-reliance on established practices. Worse than that, it is preposterous in relation to Cock Mill and Larpool woods because its exceptional species diversity of Ancient Woodland Indicator plants exists in spite of, and more likely because of a lack of intervention management, as I saw I saw no management of the woodland, but plenty of fallen trees and deadwood. Moreover, it already has a mix of shrubs and trees that is entirely consistent with a natural woodland community in its location. The interventionist practices of coppicing, rides and glades just create highly artificial structures with communities of species that may only exist in these artificial structures, the structures dependent on us for their continued existence, and they all lack an accumulation of dead wood (19, 20). As I also explained, a hillshade LiDAR map of the wooded valley in which Cock Mill and Larpool woods exits shows it’s a deep sided hole (13, 21). It would be difficult to see how this interventionist management of coppicing, and creating glades and rides could take place in such a topography.
Outside of ancient woodland, there is a priority in the strategy to increase tree and woodland cover by enhancing, expanding and connecting all types of existing woodland and creating new species-diverse woodlands, which it claims promotes good woodland structure, increases resilience, and produces sustainable woodland products and timber (see WLD_P04 in (3)). Four of the measures listed appear significant: create new species-diverse woodlands; ensure a diverse range of species are included in planting mixes, and select species appropriate to the site using Ecological Site Classification; and include native ground flora in woodland creation, including incorporating appropriate structures, such as creating woodland clearings and canopy gaps; retain standing and fallen deadwood in all types of woodland and forest to increase structural diversity and encourage specialist species, e.g. planting sacrificial trees, retaining deadwood and felling debris (see WLD_M04.1 to WLD_M04.3, WLD_M04.6 in (3)). I won’t comment on the artificiality of appropriate structures and the planting sacrificial trees, and I would be concerned at the emphasis on species diversity if it had not been linked to selecting species appropriate to the site using Ecological Site Classification, but I applaud the often-forgotten inclusion of native ground flora in woodland creation as well as the need to retain deadwood.
A fashionable campaigning cause
What I wanted to see, though, is whether there was any indication of another, more recent dogma pervading the strategy. In June, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust announced that it had purchased 42ha of the former Scale Park hunting estate near Kettlewell in North Yorkshire for a new nature reserve with funding provided by Aviva, an insurance company, and with match-funding by The United Bank of Carbon (22,23). The reserve, Park Gill, was said to have “fragmented patches of temperate rainforest” and that this “new reserve gives us a great opportunity to restore and expand this fantastic habitat”. The intention was to plant woodlands in the shaded valley of Caseker Gill Beck within the reserve, the “cool, humid conditions which, with time, may lead them to develop characteristics of temperate rainforest”. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust alleges that temperate rainforests are “stores of carbon, from their rich soils, to the trees and plants growing within them, which lock it up as they grow” (24). As such, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust had carved out a share of the £38 million that Aviva donated to The Wildlife Trusts, the national body, to restore temperate rainforests in the UK, the donation being part of Aviva’s carbon offsetting Net Zero 2040 ambition (25,26).
There is so much that is wrong in all this. I very much doubt whether a few scattered trees in Caseker Gill Beck constitute “fragmented patches of temperate rainforest” (27). Both Aviva and The Wildlife Trusts describe this restoration as a nature-based solution (NbS). As a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Commission for Ecosystem Management (CEM) since 2018, I am well aware that restoring ecosystems and reinstating species are seen and promoted as NbS to address “societal challenges”, such as climate change and flooding, since CEM established a definition of NbS in 2016, and a Thematic Group of the Commission defined a Global Standard that was launched in July 2021 (28). However, I have never accepted that wild nature should carry the burden of our stupidity, that it should be used to get us out of a hole of our own making. Restoring ecosystems and reinstating species should be for the benefit and well-being of wild nature, not people. It is not, though, the invocation of NbS and carbon capture and storage that primarily bugged me about this announcement by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and I’m not going to get into some contest about whether temperate rainforest captures more carbon than other woodland, it’s that temperate rainforest has become a fashionable campaigning cause that overshadows the existence and potential for nature of many other woodland types in Britain, not least the astonishing ancient woodland indicator plant diversity of Cock Mill and Larpool Woods.
Why is Yorkshire Wildlife Trust pushing the envelope?
My main point at issue is whether Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is pushing the envelope in identifying their new reserve as a location where temperate rainforest will develop. I note that it says “may lead them to develop characteristics of temperate rainforest” and “we hope that woodland showing characters of temperate rainforest will develop over time” (22,23). The reason for this tentativeness is likely because Park Gill, as I will explain, is on the extreme eastern edge of the lowest level of climatic oceanicity at which rainforest may exist in Britain. When I wrote about coastal rainforest in Britain back in 2015 (29) I had found a mapping from 2004 of an Index of climatic oceanicity, the humid conditions that result from high numbers of rainy days and low variations in monthly temperatures (the index is mean annual number of wet days divided by the range of monthly mean temperatures - see pg. 24 and Fig 7 in (30)). A correlation was noted between the growth of many bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) lichens and ferns that are associated with temperate rainforest with the areas where the index of oceanicity was above 20. These areas were shown on the map as almost solely associated with the west coast of Ireland, and the NW coast of Scotland, a finding that rules out Park Gill from becoming temperate rainforest, but which concurred with my experiences of walking woodlands on the western seaboard of Ireland (31) and Argyl in western Scotland (29).
In 2016, a paper examining the degree of spatial overlap in Britain between zones of high oceanicity and temperate rainforest, used a mapping of zones of an Index of hygrothermy (annual precipitation × mean annual temperature)/difference between mean temperatures of warmest and coldest months) and a mapping of the presence and absence of temperate rainforest bioclimatic conditions based on a standard definition (>1400 mm of precipitation per annum, a mean July isotherm <16◦C, and with >10% annual precipitation occurring during the summer period (June to August))(32). In the map of the trend of hygrothermy across Britain, index values greater than 150 – dubbed a hyper-oceanic zone - were shown to be largely restricted to a position in the central part of NW Scotland, though encompassing much smaller outlying sites in the Scottish borders, the Lake District, N and S Wales, and SW England (see Map A in (33)). This hyper-oceanic zone was nested within a much broader region of oceanic climate with index values >100, the oceanic zone occurring extensively along the Atlantic coastline of Britain. In comparison, the bioclimatic conditions characterising a temperate rainforest zone had a distribution that was broadly synchronous with the hyper-oceanic zone plus the oceanic zone (compare Map B with Map A in (33)). To my eye, the earlier mapping of an index of oceanicity at the cut-off point of above 20 (see above) corresponds in the main with the hyper-oceanic zone of hygrothermy, whereas the oceanic zone of hygrothermy is just those areas with an index of above 15. I don’t think wild nature reacts to arbitrary barrier conditions with such precision, simple biological variation suggesting the probability is greatest where the effect is greatest, and that is in the hyper-oceanic zone.
While the oceanic zone of hygrothermy and the bioclimatic map pushes outwards to the E and S the area where temperate rainforest allegedly may exist, it’s not easy to see accurately at the scale of the maps whether it encompasses the location of Park Gill. A contemporary mapping of allegedly the distribution of surviving fragments of temperate rainforest in Britain by the campaigning website Lost Rainforests of Britain uses a Geographic Information System to plot an index of hygrothermy (34). The mapping shows five zones based on ranges of the index, the overall range being 100 to 200+, with 100-125 and 125-150 being described as having an oceanic climate and ranges above that being described as hyper oceanic. Unfortunately, there is no search facility nor the ability to create a link to bookmark a particular location, and there is no way to slide back the hygrothermy layer to see the locations beneath it. I have zoomed in to the location of the Park Gill reserve and superimposed a replication of the hygrothermy zone with 60% transparency to demonstrate that it really is on the extreme eastern edge of the lowest level of climatic oceanicity at which allegedly rainforest may exist in Britain (see (35)).
Moreover, I have walked ancient woodlands that are shown in this mapping within the oceanic zone that are nearest to Park Gill in the western edge of North Yorkshire, such as Scoska and Ling Gill (36) and I would be hard pressed to consider them as rainforest, based on my experiences of walking woodlands on the western seaboard of Ireland (31) and Argyl in western Scotland (29). In addition, the presence of the indicator species for temperate rainforest of mosses, liverworts and lichens are scarcely present in this area of low hygrothermy, and certainly absent from Park Gill and the woodlands above that I have walked (see (34)). If you look carefully, while the distribution of these indicators appears to favour higher areas of hygrothermy, there is an admission that only 25% of the ancient woodland sites contained records of the rainforest species of lichens, mosses or liverworts (37) which is likely because they don’t necessarily only grow on trees but on rocky outcrops and boulders (38). It is a false reflection anyway since the presence of these indicators outside of the oceanic zone has disingenuously been left out of the mapping when they certainly do appear there (eg. (39-41)).
A focus solely on epiphytic species
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust in claiming that Park Gill would develop temperate rainforest was the more recent dogma that I hoped would not have pervaded the North Yorkshire LNRS. There was a measure to buy or lease land to create Atlantic rainforest in the initial long list of opportunities to be taken forward as priorities (see OPP092 and M92.1 in (42)). However, it was not selected during the prioritisation and selection process. I would suggest this was a sound judgement on the preposterously weak assumption of the probability of temperate rainforest developing in an area of the lowest range of oceanicity. Moreover, I object to the presumption by the Lost Temperate Rainforests of Britain campaign that areas of ancient woodland within the oceanic zone of hygrothermy in Yorkshire are indicative of surviving fragments of temperate rainforest (37).
As I have explained recently, there has been no systematic study of the ecological integrity of ancient woodlands, their defining characteristic being a continuity of tree cover but without any knowledge of their intactness as a natural woodland ecosystem (13). An over-focus on potential temperate rainforest, especially outside of the hyper-oceanic zone, risks obscuring one essential characteristic of woodlands with high ecological integrity. The book on rainforests produced in 2022 by the instigator of the campaigning cause on temperate rainforests aptly demonstrated this (43). The author walked three of the woodlands in Argyl that I had walked years before for my article on rainforests in 2015 - Ballachuan Hazelwood, Glen Nant, and Glasdrum – and yet there isn’t a single mention of woodland wildflowers associated with those woodlands, nor any of the other woodlands mentioned in the book.
Just to take the example of Ballachuan Hazelwood, while the author doesn’t give a date for his visit, he describes in the characteristic mellifluous hyperbole of a travelogue the walk-in where he sees the meadow “teeming with waxcap fungi, bright reds and yellows peppering the grassy sward” and then “ducked beneath a clatter of branches” to enter Ballachuan, observing “The forest floor was a gorgeous mosaic of hazel leaves, shading from lemon-yellow to burnt umber”. Waxcaps appear in late summer and autumn, typically from September to November (44) which correlates with the leaves having fallen off the hazels. I visited Ballachuan twice, on the 9 and 14 May in 2015, and as well as observing tree lungwort lichen (Lobaria pulmonaria) and the script lichens (Graphidion communities (45)) that specialise on smooth bark trees like hazel, there was glue fungus (Hymenochaete corrugata) and many mosses (29). There was also a carpet of woodland wild flowers under the unmanaged hazel wood. I noticed stitchwort, bluebell, wood sorrel, wood anemone, dogs’ mercury, celandines, woodruff, woodrush, bugle, primrose, wild garlic, and red campion. The four-day gap between visits brought on the ground flora, especially the ferns and bluebells, and wild garlic in the wetter areas. I counted 12 woodland wildflowers in bloom, adding early purple orchid to my list from the first visit. Nine of those wildflowers are Ancient Woodland Indicator plants in Scotland (46).
The presence of those woodland wildflowers in Ballachuan Hazelwoods would be missed by visiting in Autumn, an absence that would have given an incomplete understanding of the ecological potential of the location and its integrity as a woodland ecosystem. The danger of this focus only on epiphytic indicators, which is characteristic of many guides to temperate rainforest (47-52) is that the incorrigible conservation dogma to garden for species sees only the needs of those epiphytes and not those of the woodland wildflowers. Thus, the judgement is that that less management has led to woodlands becoming shadier, resulting in a loss of lichen diversity (52, 53). In hand with this, while mosses and liverworts prefer more humid conditions promoted by a closed canopy, very dense shade may result in less diverse bryophyte communities, as a few competitive mosses may dominate. Hence the need to manage the woodland to “create more open areas”. There was no mention, and thus any consideration of what impact this management intervention would have on woodland wildflowers.
I had an early experience of this dogma when on a field trip in 2009 in W Wales during a course on Forest Network Habitats (54) we were given a talk at the second stop on the compilation of a number of areas of “old sessile oak woods” that had a significant Atlantic or oceanic flora of bryophytes and lichens into a Special Area of Conservation (55). We could see an ancient oak woodland rising up in the distance looking to the W over the River Eden. A concern was that the rocks on which the mosses and liverworts were growing in these oak woodlands were being overgrown with bramble, ivy and holly, and that livestock grazing and mechanical activity would be needed to control this (and see Section 4.1 in (56)). My suggestion was chucking in more rocks instead, since many lichens and bryophytes do grow on rocky outcrops and boulders ((38) and see pg. 14 in (57)). As it is, I later walked two of the woodlands included in this Special Area of Conservation in 2015, albeit too early in the year to see the woodland wildflowers, and it was the woodland that appeared unmanaged that had any great feel of oceanic species (29).
Campaigning causes become bandwagons
When I wrote about coastal temperate rainforest back in 2015, I recognised that the lushness in ferns, lichens and mosses in W Ireland and in the central part of NW Scotland was an embellishment of long-established woodlands that had other characteristic woodland species compositions as well. Thus, in the same way that temperate rainforests have a limited, predominantly coastal distribution, determined by climatic conditions and often the presence of rocky outcrops and boulders on which the bryophytes and lichens can grow, the various native woodland communities have a restricted distribution across Britain depending on edaphic conditions (soil types and hydrology) and level of climatic exposure to which they are suited to (see woodland communities in (58)). Temperate rainforests are just another type of woodland community, but if you were to buy in to the rhetoric with which they are over-promoted, then you are being deceived as to their relative importance for wild nature. All ecologically intact ancient woodlands are irreplaceable habitats.
Mark Fisher 1 August 2025
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www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/intrinsic.htm
(2) Document 3: Statement of Biodiversity Priorities, Part I – Description of our Strategy Area, North Yorkshire and York Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) North Yorkshire Council CONSULTATION DRAFT June 2025
(3) Document 4: Statement of Biodiversity Priorities, Part II – Priorities and Measures, North Yorkshire and York Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) North Yorkshire Council CONSULTATION DRAFT June 2025
(4) Environment Act 2021 c. 30
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2021/30/contents
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https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/e992c77ab03b453a9881a0d871bc49c3
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www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/salt_marsh_spital_beck.jpg
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https://data.jncc.gov.uk/data/7607ac0b-f3d9-4660-9dda-0e538334ed86/CSM-SaltmarshHabitats-2004.pdf
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http://www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/cock_mill_larpool.htm
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www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/cockmill_larpool_stainsacre.jpg
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(22) New reserve in the heart of the Dales will return rainforests to Yorkshire, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Monday 9 June 2025
https://www.ywt.org.uk/news/new-reserve-heart-dales-will-return-rainforests-yorkshire
(23) Park Gill nature reserve, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
https://www.ywt.org.uk/nature-reserves/park-gill-nature-reserve
(24) Temperate rainforest, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
https://www.ywt.org.uk/habitats/woodland/temperate-rainforest
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(27) Map of Caseker Gill tree canopies
www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/caseker_gill_tree_canopies.jpg
(28) Nature-based Solutions Thematic Group. IUCN CEM
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(33) Fig. 1. Maps for A. The trend in hygrothermy (~oceanicity) across Britain, and B. The distribution of grid-squares corresponding to the temperate rainforest bioclimatic zone.IN Ellis, C. J. (2016). Oceanic and temperate rainforest climates and their epiphyte indicators in Britain. Ecological Indicators, 70, 125-133
https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1470160X16303016-gr1_lrg.jpg
(34) Interactive Map of the Lost Rainforests of Britain
https://map.lostrainforestsofbritain.org/
(35) Map of Index of Hygrothermy zone covering Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Park Gill reserve, Self-willed land July 2025
www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/park_gill_hygrothermy.jpg
(36) Walking the wild places, Self-willed land 28 September 2010
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https://map.lostrainforestsofbritain.org/Lost-Rainforests-Mapping-Methodology.pdf
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https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/conservation/habitats/inland-rock/lowland-rocks
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https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/resources/species-accounts/lobaria-pulmonaria
(42) Appendix 4: LNRS Nature recovery opportunities longlist, North Yorkshire and York Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) North Yorkshire Council CONSULTATION DRAFT June 2025
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https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/conservation/lichen-communities/graphidion
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www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/CLCrawford_scot_indicators.pdf
(47) A Provisional Definition of Temperate Rainforest in Britain and Ireland, Ben Averis February 2023
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https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/habitats/woodland/temperate-rainforest
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https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/habitats/temperate-rainforest/
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(56) Core Management Plan including conservation objectives for Coedydd Derw a Safleoedd Ystlumod Meirion/Meirionnydd Oakwoods and Bat Sites SAC, Natural Resources Wales
https://naturalresources.wales/media/672832/mow-sac-plan.pdf
(57) Lichens and bryophytes of Atlantic woodland in Scotland: an introduction to their ecology and management, Plantlife 2010
(58) Hotchkiss, A. and Herbert, S. (2022) Tree species handbook, The Woodland Trust
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/media/50812/tree-species-handbook-woodland-creation-guide.pdf
url:www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/rainforest_nature.htm
www.self-willed-land.org.uk mark.fisher@self-willed-land.org.uk