03/09/2025
A fantastic experience for one of our beneficiaries, Mike. We met Jade, the National Nature Reserve Officer for the National Trust in Borrowdale, who gave us a fantastic insight into the amazing work she does, and also showed us round two bits of woodland in the area. Below is a recap of what we did, written by Jade herself:
We met at Seatoller Car park in Borrrowdale and went for a walk around Johnny Wood, a National Trust owned woodland part of the newly declared Borrowdale Rainforest National Nature Reserve. We started off discussing the requirements of a temperate rainforest in the UK and where they are found (1.5m rainfall and above, oceanic zones, west coast of the UK, humid climate, minimal temperate fluctuations and rainfall across the year). We discussed and saw some key rainforest species including Polypody fern (Polypodium vulgare) and some common mosses including Mousetail (Isothecium myosuroides), Little Shaggy moss (Rhytidiadelphus loreus), Tamarisk moss (Thuidium tamariscinum) and Haircap moss (Polytrichum commune). We discussed other key species that live within the woodlands including pied flycatchers and redstarts, and discussed the different management considerations and techniques used within a Rainforest compared to other common woodland types. After Johnny Wood we wandered into Low Stile wood, another National Trusty owned woodland without public access, to see another example of a rainforest habitat. In here we saw Prickly Featherwork (Plagiochila spinulosa), a lovely rare liverwort that is restricted to strongly atlantic (hyperoceanic) habitats.
All of this was fantastic for Mike, who said had really helped ‘clear his head’ and really did get a lot out of it.
We go above and beyond to help those that need it.
