When we think of rainforests, our minds often leap to the tropics – tangled jungles buzzing with birds and insects. Tucked away in the Lake District, you’ll find a very different kind of rainforest. These are the UK’s temperate rainforests, home to distinctive wildlife and important stores of carbon in their soils and vegetation.
One of the largest remaining fragments is Naddle Forest, which is on one of Cumbria Connect’s core nature recovery sites at Wild Haweswater. And just recently, it has given us a wonderful surprise.
Volunteers from the Cumbria Lichens and Bryophytes Group have discovered two species of rare lichen never before recorded in northern England. It’s the sort of quiet but powerful discoveries that tells us this woodland is in the best of health.
Why lichens matter
Now lichens might not seem headline grabbing, but in ecological terms they’re hugely important.
Cloaking trees and boulders in layers of colour and texture, lichens are made up of a partnership between fungi and algae and can only thrive in clean air and stable, undisturbed habitats. The two newly-found species only have scientific names: Dendrographa latebrarum and Lecanographa abscondita. Both species are considered indicators of high-quality habitat and their presence is a strong sign of the forest’s ecological importance.
“It’s very exciting to find these species in Naddle. These lichens, found on a sheltered rock face in old humid woodland, are obscure and easily overlooked – part of a mosaic of habitats within old woodland” said Chris Cant, Cumbria Lichen and Bryophyte Group.
Naddle Forest – A remnant of a disappearing habitat
Naddle Forest, alongside woodlands such as Borrowdale and Staveley Woods in Cumbria, is a precious remnant of Atlantic Oak woodland, one of the rarest types of temperate rainforest globally. They are characterised by constant humidity, clean air and a rich abundance of mosses, lichens and liverworts.
Once stretching across 20% of the UK, today less than 1% remains due to centuries of deforestation, pollution and industrial impacts.
Owned by United Utilities and managed by the RSPB team at Wild Haweswater, Naddle is now one of the largest surviving examples in Cumbria and vitally important for nature’s recovery.
“This discovery, although tiny in scale, is massive in importance. Finding these lichens here shows that Naddle is functioning as true temperate rainforest, with the clean air, constant humidity and high-quality, ancient woodland habitat needed to sustain them and highlights how crucial it is we ensure its long-term protection” said Bill Kenmir, Conservation Manager, Cumbria Connect.
This article was originally published on the Cumbria Connect website. To find out more about the restoration of Naddle Forest and the Cumbria Connect landscape, visit their project page.
