{"id":590390,"date":"2026-05-18T10:25:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T10:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590390\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T10:25:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T10:25:33","slug":"the-globally-important-rainforest-in-devon-thats-rarer-than-the-amazon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590390\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘globally important’ rainforest in Devon that’s rarer than the Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlantic rainforests are special habitats home to a vast array of wildlife and are growing in recognition and importance across the UK. Credit: The Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs<\/a>. \"Stephanie Stephanie Leonida<\/a> 11\/05\/2026 14:00 3 min <\/p>\n

A 10-acre wildlife sanctuary in Dartmoor<\/a> is nestled in a unique, temperate Atlantic Rainforest (or \u201cAtlantic woodland\u201d) zone in Wray Valley, Devon. The site also happens to be situated at a camping and B&B site (Wray Valley Camping), which was set up by Michelle Grist and Kevin Chamberlain following the coronavirus pandemic. <\/p>\n

A Species-Rich Habitat<\/p>\n

Atlantic woodland environments are very rare, special habitats that are highly influenced in terms of their unique damp and humid climate by their proximity to coastal areas. These beautiful native habitats covered a fifth of the UK<\/a> and now occupy only a disheartening 1%<\/a>. Historically, these precious, species-diverse oases were cut down for charcoal production, agriculture, and rapid-growth conifer plantations. Indicator species for Atlantic rainforests include birch and sessile oak, along with rowan, holly, willow, alder, and hazel. <\/p>\n

Lichens such as tree lungwort, which do look a little like large green lungs, and \u201cGraphis\u201d lichens that look like ancient human etchings. These clean-air species also live alongside a variety of mosses and liverworts (as many as 500 species), including Hooker\u2019s Crystalwort and Wilson\u2019s Family Fern (which resembles a moss). The Royal Fern, hard fern, spleenwort, and maidenhair fern are also inhabitants.<\/p>\n

Notable species of invertebrates, such as the ash black slug, the blue ground beetle, and the checkered skipper butterfly, might also be found in Atlantic rainforest habitats. Birds such as the orange-tailed restart, pied flycatcher, buzzard, treecreeper<\/a>, and wood warbler might also be spotted by those lucky enough to visit these special woodlands. Hazel doormice thrive on understory trees such as hazel and honeysuckle. Other mammals include the rare red squirrel and pine marten<\/a>, which is making a comeback in Scottish and Welsh rainforest woodlands. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The 10 acres within the Wray Valley area have been designated a County Wildlife Site (CWS) due to their high nature conservation value. While a CWS site does not bear statutory protection, they are provided some protection through the planning system. There are around 2,300 CWS areas throughout Devon, making up around 30,000 hectares (which is around 4% of the county).<\/p>\n

In partnership with AVIVA, The Wildlife Trusts<\/a> are committing to a 100-year restoration programme to restore 1755 hectares of temperate rainforests across the British Isles. <\/p>\n

Michelle and Kevin dedicate themselves to the management of the 10-acre site within the temperate rainforest area. Partnering with Moor Trees, Michelle and Kevin, along with 20 volunteers, have planted 200 metres of species-diverse hedgerow<\/a> and planted over 1,250 native trees and shrubs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlantic rainforests are special habitats home to a vast array of wildlife and are growing in recognition and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[25897,40127,4696,10513,1397,61341,90,16002,202057,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-590390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-atlantic","tag-british-isles","tag-conservation","tag-diversity","tag-environment","tag-rainforest","tag-science","tag-species","tag-temperate","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}