Walk: Moor Trees

MOOR TREES is a local charity dedicated to restoring some of the ancient woodland that once covered Dartmoor. Project co-founder Adam Griffith explains.

YOU may have found a moss- covered tree trunk, stretching up to branches festooned with lichens and leaves; heard the rush of a moorland stream and smelt the fresh breeze on a Dartmoor Tor. You may have stopped to think how long this wild land has been here and what has shaped it, but the open bleakness of the moor, despite it's harsh beauty, only faintly echoes the story of an ancient past. The land then was more alive, freer in its expression of beauty and the abundance of life. No more so than it's wildwoods.

Ancient woodlands are our remnants of the original wildwoods, which were a part of the large natural forest that covered nearly 90% of the Britain after the last ice age.

But it wasn't all woods. A large proportion of the forest would have been grassy glades, wet marshes, heath and boggy mires.

Nearly all the large mammals are long gone. The Red Deer are making a tentative return to the moor, but the European Bison, Tarpan (wild horse) and Aurochs are either semi-feral or closely guarded secrets living within reserves in other parts of Europe. Then, of course there's the wolf, lynx and bear, squeezed out over a millennia ago.

These animals, along with countless others and many natural forest plants, have been lost over a long period of time - nearly 5000 years - and we are now left with fragments of the forest that are diminished in size, and in their rich diversity of life. Over the last century alone our ancient woodland has been halved and now stands at less than 1.5% of the land in Britain, a faint shadow of its former existence.

Who knows the extent of the impact this loss has had on the species left, but the broken web of life has mutated to survive, and moved on. Conservation, a relatively new idea in the past 50 years, has begun to try and plug the gaps, but imitating nature is no substitute for the real thing.

With only 2.7% of Dartmoor National Park covered with fragments of ancient woodland, known locally as Atlantic Oakwoods, it is important to maintain and expand this rich genetic heritage to ensure it's future survival. However, most of these ancient woodlands are below the minimum size of 50 hectares (123 acres) needed for them to sustain the diverse fauna and flora they have.

Atlantic Oakwoods used to be found throughout the western seaboards of Europe and were part of the great temperate, deciduous rainforest that covered large areas of Western Europe. Many large herbivores and carnivores have been protected or returned to areas of mainland

Europe,and even the Netherlands, with one of the largest population densities on the planet, has restored a large area of wet forest.

So when someone talks about saving the rainforests, I don't just think about those in the tropics, but also those that have been lost, and forgotten, here where I live.

Ancient woodland not only holds the potential for the greatest and most natural diversity of species; it also contributes to the existence of life on the planet by soaking up carbon dioxide, a major pollutant and cause of climate change.

For this reason, Moor Trees, a local charity, set about trying to expand the ancient woodlands within the old diminished forest landscape of Dartmoor, as part of a UK movement of organisations, to stimulate interest in restoring our natural forest landscape.

Dartmoor, like the rest of England, has a long history of exploitation of natural resources and it is only due to its remoteness, and the care of others, that it has not been developed towards factory farming in the last century. This legacy, the changing face of agriculture towards more sustainable practises and a continued rise in tourism, now holds the potential for putting back the parts that have been lost and letting nature get on with it. This letting go process should be gradual, in order to continue to conserve the wildlife that is vulnerable, particularly with the ongoing impact of climate change.

Restoring the natural forest landscape is an exciting prospect for the potential increase of local biodiversity and the creation of non-commercial woodland for the soaking up of carbon dioxide (a carbon sink). Equally important, though, is the message it sends out to the rest of the world, particularly after the world summit in Johannesburg, on sustaining the world's resources.

We have lost over a million species worldwide to the removal of our natural forests and woods. We should now be urging people to help restore areas of wildwoods and forest landscapes to help stabilise the planets climate and restore climate health and in turn to help build a sustainable future for our children.

Our culture has changed dramatically. Urban, industrial and technological life dominates our values and lifestyles. A vision for the future of forest restoration could help us get back to nature and remember the bare essentials for our survival - the source of life, the earth's vitality that feeds us and sustains us.

Moor Trees holds a simple vision - to restore a more natural balance of wildwoods on Dartmoor.

It's new 1st Shoots project involves local people in tree planting schemes within the Dartmoor National Park and in collecting seed from local ancient woodlands to grow in small organic tree nurseries around the moor.

The project carries forward the initial start-up work in these tree nurseries, which has developed over the past two years and has resulted in us finally producing three-year-old saplings ready for planting. The work Moor Trees is doing is important because there are very few nurseries growing local origin seed and fewer still growing seed from ancient woodland to help maintain the important, but rare genetic heritage of ancient woodland.

The charity currently has seven tree nurseries, where volunteers are involved in growing eight native tree species, and we hope to reflect the wonderfully unusual qualities of Dartmoor's Atlantic oakwoods, the most famous of which is Wistman's Wood.

Moor Trees offers landowners help to carry out new planting schemes through their Wildwood service.

It provides help by obtaining grants from the Forestry Commission to cover costs, providing trees from its nurseries and co-ordinating and managing local volunteer help in the planting and maintaining of the trees.

In return, Moor Trees ask that the trees and woods be kept for conservation and public enjoyment. Moor Trees hopes that these charitable purposes will attract landowners and volunteers alike, but the service is also there to try to remove any economic restraints from putting land over to this type of tree-planting scheme.

Moor Trees has recently been successful in attracting grants to cover the whole cost of a new tree planting scheme, including the longer-term costs of establishing the wood. This coming winter, we hope to work on a site of seven acres, near Buckfastleigh.

Moor Trees regularly publicise work dates when people can get involved and enjoy growing, planting and protecting the young trees. Volunteers are also invited to help gather seed at one of our Sunday Seed Strolls in beautiful ancient woodland.

We have a long way to go before considering whether we can re-introduce some of those large beasties that I mentioned earlier, but wouldn't it be exciting if we could?

Please come and join us and help the Wildwoods return!



Adam Griffin is co-founder and 1st Shoots project co-ordinator. He has worked in 'ecological restoration' - the restoring of deforestated lands - for over 10 years. If you'd like more details on volunteering or becoming a member please call him on 0845 456 9803 (local call rate)