Campaigners hope to save rare rainforest habitat

Volunteers are hoping to raise funding to continue restoring a rare temperate rainforest habitat which has shrunk across the country.

The Friends of the Lake District look after two neighbouring woods in the Rusland Valley, Cumbria, which have rainforest indicators.

During Earth Week, from 22 to 29 April, donations through the Big Give's Earth Raise campaign will be doubled by match funding, the organisation said.

Friends of the Lake District's land manager, Jan Darrall, said the thought of a rainforest in Cumbria "enchants and inspires people".

The group hopes to improve the rare habitat by carrying out veteran tree care, glade creation and invasive-species control.

"We have a real opportunity to restore these ancient landscapes and protect rare wildlife," Darrall said.

Temperate rainforests once covered around 20% of the UK, but today it covers less than 1%.

Their rich, sheltered microclimates are home to mosses, lichens, fungi and ferns, with some species rarely found outside the remaining fragments of Cumbrian woodland.

Marion Brown, who lives in the Rusland Valley and volunteers for the group, said: "You could spend an entire day in the Friends of the Lake District woods and still not find all the amazing rainforest species hiding in there.

"Every tree, rocky outcrop and dry-stone wall is like a mini city, but like much of the remaining small fragments of temperate rainforest in the UK, these woods are under threat from non-native species, disease and climate change."

She said it has been "very special" to be part of the restoration work over the past two years.

The group is about to be entrusted with additional adjoining woodland, expanding its stewardship to 72 acres.

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