More than 2,500 native trees have been planted to form a temperate rainforest in decades to come. The first step towards creating a Celtic rainforest – a now extremely rare habitat that once covered large swathes of the west coast of Britain – has been completed in Devon.
![[A Celtic rainforest at Coed Felenrhyd in north Wales.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9d32aaff2b42ff8f3536babe58c26a99edb34763/0_271_6240_3744/master/6240.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
More than 2,500 native trees have been planted so far this winter at Devon Wildlife Trust’s Bowden Pillars site, above the Dart valley and close to the green-minded market town of Totnes. In decades to come, these trees – oak, rowan, alder, hazel, birch, willow and holly – will form a temperate rainforest, sometimes known as a Celtic or Atlantic rainforest.
![[Rows of young trees that have just been planted, in biodegradable tree tubes]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/cfd7f4ee13cf9eaf6ff0ab7e522479f68cc213b2/427_0_3639_2184/master/3639.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
These rainforests used to cover large parts of Britain, especially its western regions, acting as vital carbon stores by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as well as being abundant in wildlife, but after many centuries of destruction they now amount to just 1% of the country’s land area.
More than 100 volunteers of all ages devoted hundreds of hours to planting the trees on the 30-hectare (75-acre) site of what were sheep-grazed fields. Eventually the landscape will have 70% tree cover, with the rest becoming open glades, woodland rides and wildflower-rich meadows.
The charity plans to plant a further 4,500 trees by the end of this winter, bringing the total to 7,000, with more to follow in subsequent years. Claire Inglis, a nature reserve officer at Devon Wildlife Trust who is leading the Bowden Pillars planting project for the charity, said: “It’s been a winter in which we’ve battled storms and snow to plant more than 2,500 trees and begin the transformation of Bowden Pillars to a place which offers a home to nature and is vital resource for local communities.
