AN Exmoor rainforest site has been offered a much-needed lifeline thanks to the release of ground-breaking expert management guidance by wild plant conservation charity Plantlife.

Among them is Horner Wood, near Porlock, which is the only known site in the world of the rare comma lichen Arthonia thoriana.

Plantlife partnered with a number or organisations, including the National Trust, Exmoor National Park, the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, British Lichen Society, British Bryological Society, Woodland Trust, South West Lakes Trusts, and Natural England on its pioneering project. 

The guidelines, the first interactive, online version to be produced by Plantlife to outline how best to look after temperate woodlands for the benefit of lichens, ferns, and bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) were decades in the making.

They were the output of pioneering conservation work undertaken by the Building Resilience in South West Woodlands conservation partnership project backed by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Plantlife building resilience project manager Rachel Jones said: “Once celebrated by William Wordsworth and J.R.R. Tolkien, Britain’s rainforests have become smaller, more fragmented, and isolated from each other over centuries due to inappropriate grazing, clearance, and conversion.

“But we are turning the tide.

“The discovery of lost ‘relic’ sites and new species records, alongside development of fresh guidance that will support others to improve the condition of rainforests, paves the way towards a great British rainforest revival.”

Lichen and bryophyte specialist Dave Lamacraft said: “Britain’s remaining remnants of rainforests face severe and surging threats from a lack of appropriate management, invasive species, tree diseases, climate change, and air pollution.

“But through this project we now understand better how to build their resilience.

“To safeguard these biodiversity hotspots we have undertaken some emergency management to secure the futures of some really rare species, including the successful transplanting of Lobarion community lichens from stricken or fallen ash trees to recipient trees.

“Breathing new life into these magical ‘lungs of the forest’ lichens and learning about how best to manage this amazing habitat has been a really rewarding experience.”

Plantlife lead community scientist Dr Alison Smith said: “Britain’s temperate rainforests are just as special and spectacular as their tropical cousins but are actually even rarer.

“Building resilience has played a key role in raising the profile of temperate rainforests but they still need better recognition and protection if they are not to quietly vanish from the landscape. “Connecting people with nature is crucial.

“We have trained hundreds of people to be able to identify lichens, bryophyte, and ferns.

“Once people are able to view these amazing organisms close up and notice their diversity and importance they find woodland walks are never the same again and are moved to care more deeply about these special places.”

The Plantlife project has also run guided forest bathing sessions which demonstrate the wellbeing benefits of people of spending contemplative, mindful, time in woodlands, and has delivered 262 events, directly engaging 2,946 adults and more than 800 children.

The charity said practical conservation on the ground had safeguarded five especially vulnerable rainforest sites across Somerset and Devon by clearing invasive species, letting more light in through the canopy, and creating a future generation of veteran trees.

A total of 180 acres of temperate rainforest were directly managed under the project with a further 400 acres coming under better management as a result of training land managers across the region.

Regionally-threatened lichens, including the spectacular and rare Tree Lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria) which resembles human lungs, were successfully translocated from ash trees threatened by ash dieback to nearby hazel, oak, and sycamore trees.

A spokesman for the charity said the beneficial impact was not limited to protecting existing rainforests.

Working alongside Plantlife experts, a team of trained volunteers had surveyed nearly 300 woodlands across the region using the charity’s rapid rainforest assessment and improving understanding of their condition to help inform future management.

They also discovered 15 high-quality rainforest locations by finding new records of rainforest indicator species records such as the oceanic liverworts Greater Whipwort (Bazzania trilobata) and Prickly Featherwort (Plagiochila spinulosa).

More than 60 new species records at sites across the counties were recorded.

Lichens living in rainforests in the Westcountry included the delightfully named String-of-sausages (Usnea articulata), Floury Dog Lichen (Peltigera collina), Tattered Jelly-skin (Scytinium lichenoides), Mealy-rimmed Shingle Lichen (Pannaria conoplea), and Tumbling Kittens (Hypotrachyna taylorensis).