“Yggdrasil, the World Tree, grew on an island surrounded by the ocean, in the depths of which the World Serpent lay. This ash tree’s trunk reached up to the heavens, and its boughs spread out over all the countries of the Earth. Its roots reached down into the Underworld. A squirrel ran up and down the tree carrying messages from the serpent gnawing at the roots to the eagle in the canopy, and back. A deer fed on the ashRead more
Posts filed in: Building Resilience
A Focus on Lichens and What They Need
The East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve (NNR) is special for many things, and one of them is lichens. Therefore, we were very fortunate that as part of the Festival of NNRs Granite Elements held an exhibition titled ‘Focus on Lichens: a Weekend of Art and Science‘ on 11th and 12th June at The Woodland Centre situated in Yarner Wood. Please see the summary by Clare Benson (Granitite Elements). “Lichens are all around us, but are easily overlooked. This exhibition wasRead more
DIY Rainforest Restoration
On a blustery, wet Wednesday in the wake of ‘Storm Arwen’ more than 20 attendees, including landowners and woodland managers joined Plantlife, Natural England and the Woodland Trust for a participatory demonstration workshop on restoring habitats for rare communities of lichens and bryophytes. The high levels of rainfall and humid conditions the group endured was testimony to why the west coast of Britain supports one of the world’s rarest woodland habitats, temperate rainforest. The National Lottery Heritage funded partnership projectRead more
Lighting up the Darkness
Following pre and post-management surveying along Bovey Valley wood’s ancient banks and boundaries in August 2020 (Back in the Bovey blog), professional habitat-management contractors working for the Woodland Trust and Natural England have been selectively clearing holly, beech and sycamore to bring back the light to the woodland understorey, as part of Plantlife’s ‘Building Resilience in South West Woodlands’ project. Without management, many of these ancient boundaries have become over-grown with shading tree species which can become invasive if notRead more
Building Resilience Back in the Bovey
This August saw the return of Plantlife’s Building Resilience in the South-West project to Bovey Valley woods. In partnership with the Woodland Trust and Natural England, this National Lottery Heritage Fund funded project has seen the valleys historic field boundaries surveyed and managed, to increase their habitat value for the many rare lichen species they support. In previous years, the surveys have been carried out with the help of citizen science volunteers from the local community, gathering data on lightRead more
New Year: A Reflection On Changes
It’s a new year, with new plans and resolutions, the time of year where we think about changes we can make to ensure this year is the best one yet. Holly and ivy, evergreen plants, are symbols of new life, said by some to offer protection from entities that may wish us harm going into this new year. In their natural woodland home, they play other more complex roles. You may have noticed, that they too have been impacted byRead more
East Dartmoor Woods blog 