Britain’s temperate rainforest once spanned a fifth of the country, but after 800 years of felling, grazing, and toxic air, less than 1% remains. Then, in 2020, researcher Guy Shrubsole discovered moss-draped oak gorges that no map had ever catalogued, sparking the first national recovery strategies.
Britain once supported a temperate rainforest covering roughly a fifth of its land surface. This woodland, an estimated 4.6 million hectares, stretched from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands along west-facing slopes and river gorges. The climate there, mild with heavy Atlantic rainfall, allowed oaks, mosses, lichens, and ferns to grow in dense, interconnected layers. Today, less than 1% of Britai…