Thirty-hectare site above Dart valley will include lichens and ferns and could take a century to reach maturity

By Steven Morris

A temperate rainforest, a magical, wildlife-rich place of mosses, lichens and ferns, is being planted on the slopes above a West Country river, tumbling almost to the doors of one of the UK’s most green-minded towns.

Tree species including sessile oak, birch, rowan, holly, alder, willow and hazel are to be introduced to the 30-hectare (74-acre) site above the Dart valley and close to the Devon town of Totnes in the south of England.

In time, the habitat, also known as Atlantic or Celtic rainforest, should become home to mammals such as stoats and pine martens, and threatened birds including wood warblers, redstarts, and pied flycatchers.

Wet conditions should support an abundance of mosses, liverworts…