When I read the title of this book, I thought, "New England must have some lost rainforests." I haven't carefully researched this question yet, although I know that some places in New England surpass the 1,300mm of rainfall a year, 10% or more in the summer months threshold, via one definition. I also am aware of a few sites not on any old-growth maps that display old-growth indicators (such as the bark being absolutely blanketed in bryophytes, with many orchids in the understory).
One striking statistic from the book: tropical rainforests cover about 12% the earth's surface, while temperate rainforests only cover about 1.2% (although this number used to be much larger).
I've only traveled once across England and Wales, and I can see how and why someone would become enchanted with the quest to rediscover, preserve, and regenerate such places.
The book is a little haunting, in that the story of the loss of Britains rainforests mirrors a lot of the ecosystem destruction that New England faces (and has lived through). Currently New England is 70% forested (that said, all but a few percent of these have been clear cut at least three times in the last few centuries). We're a forested place, and our rainfall is reliant, in part, on this fact.
There are currently a number of development pressures on New England's forests. The New England Food Vision aims for the expansion of tilled agricultural lands (at the expense of forests) to increase regional food security (overlooking the potential of agroforestry and silviculture). Rising fuel prices and "green energy" commitments have resulted in a the increases utilization of New England's forests for firewood, and then for biomass for the American and European energy markets. Increasingly I see forests being logged only to be chipped directly into eighteen wheeler trailers.
I will admit, I burn wood myself, to heat my sauna and my home. That said, we also use heat pumps. As a phenomenologist, I think the aesthetic experience of fire is an important aspect of human culture. Sometimes I use wood that I've cut myself from trees we've either had to take down because they're endangering structures, or trees that have fallen across paths, etc. Sometimes we buy from local firewood suppliers.
As an aside, I'd like to plug Mark Krawczyk's "Coppice Agroferestry," which documents a wide variety of coppice methods to intensively utilize specific kinds of woodlots (which, when combined with conservation of wild places, could result in both meeting our needs for wood, while not trying to pull wood out of large swaths of healthy or regenerating ecosystems).
But to come back to the book again: Shubsole takes an interdisciplinary approach. Want to learn about the import of rainforests in the mythology of Britain? He's on it. Want to learn more about their ecology? Check. What about regenerative agriculture? There's a bit on that.
I do take issue with a few points in the book. I disagree that Britain needs to spend £1 billion to eradicate "invasive" rhododendron. I wish Shrubsole had read Tao Orion's "Beyond the War on Invasive Species" as part of his research. He also should have spoken more with Commons scholars in his research, such as David Bollier, to point him to examples of well-functioning agroecological commons. And although the book is an implicit appeal to the somatic allure we can feel with forests, this window into truth never came into full maturity in the book.
Overall though, it is a beautiful, enjoyable, and informative book. Whether you live near temperate rainforests, or anywhere else, this book should inspire you.
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Brian
What Britain once looked like. What Britain could look like again.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2023
Brian
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2023
Although Shrubsole notes early in his text that ‘Few people realise that Britain harbours fragments of a globally rare habitat: temperate rainforest’, my feeling is that this awareness is expanding and growing- more so in recent months, with more and more of these texts breaking into the public awareness. Education, appreciation and love of the rainforests and the natural world are all core concepts explored in the book.
‘So much has been lost; so little remains.’
The, at best, indifferent attitude to the protection of temperate rainforests in Britain over the centuries has led to a devasting decline in their existence. The transactional relationship and exploitation of nature for our own resources has reinforced the dangerous belief that humanity stands proudly above the other species of this planet and that this planet is in some way ‘ours’, to do with as we please.
Shrubsole notes that although Britain lies in a ‘bioclimatic zone’, which lends itself to the promotion of temperate rainforests, of about 11 million acres of Britain or a ‘staggering 20 per cent of the country’, the existence of rainforests remains solely in isolated pockets- mainly on the western coastal areas. ‘Over the millenia, we’ve destroyed our rainforests, so that now only tiny fragments and relics remain. We’re so unfamiliar with these enchanting places, we’ve forgotten they exist.’ Shrubsole is not afraid to pin the blame on humanity’s actions, ‘But we didn’t just lose our rainforests through some tragic accident. We actively destroyed them.’ It is important to appreciate the intentional nature of the actions which led to this reduction of temperate rainforest. The two culprits examined in depth in this book are the overgrazing done by sheep and deer, as well as the unchecked proliferation of rhododendron. He comments that, ‘Out of the 74,000 acres of temperate rainforest left in Scotland, around 40 per cent is estimated to be infested with rhododendron.’
‘Britain was once a rainforest nation. But we lost most of our rainforests.’
Although the physical evidence of rainforests is now reduced, Shrubsole champions movements and pressure groups whose focus is the rewilding of the country, to recover what has been lost. ‘A habitat that once flourished over perhaps a fifth of Britain has been reduced to scattered fragments covering less than 1 per cent of the country.’ He convincingly argues that the cultural memory of a landscape covered with rainforests is still there, if we know the clues to conduct an effective search, but for the majority, this is something that has been forgotten. ‘This loss of cultural memory, this great forgetting that we once had rainforests, is almost as heartbreaking as the loss of the forests themselves.’
In order to find these clues, he fully analyses a number of place names, through linguistic archaeology, from Celtic and Viking origins, to demonstrate that names on maps can hold the key to the past. This was a really exciting part of the text for me, one which I thoroughly enjoyed- that the memory of what our landscape was once like, can still be found in plain sight through place names, is a fascinating area to explore. Although Shrubsole acknowledges clearly that, ‘The awful truth is that we destroyed them,’ he alsosimultaneously argues that can also be the agents of restoration. ‘If we are to stand any chance of restoring our lost rainforests, we first need to remember we once had them.’
Britain is a land full of myths surrounding trees and nature. Through the works of Tolkien, modern generations have been introduced to living trees, who have underestimated power. We are also privileged enough to have the Welsh text of ‘The Mabinogion’ to be our guide. We forget that we are also a land which has been a fusion of cultures for centuries. The Norse influence- also to be found in place names- continues to be present in modern life in the UK, with days of the week named after Norse Gods, as well as their central belief of the Yggdrasil- the tree of life. In Christian mythology, trees also figure significantly- with many homes and churches decorated with wooden crosses, symbols of the possibility of a new life. Alongside this iconography, we also see the image of the Green Man, once more hidden in plain sight. Shrubsole celebrates that this connection still exists and when discussing mythologies, argues that the power of an old story told anew may well be essential in our present world, beset with various crises. ‘It’s that these stories contain a deep love of place, infusing the real world with sacred meaning. In a time of ecological crisis, that’s a story we badly need to relearn.’
‘I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.’
One story which we could well to ‘relearn’ might be that of Dr Seuss’s ‘The Lorax’. For various generations, the loss of nature through the actions of capitalist industrialists, has been a memorable story. We are moved by the empty countryside and far-reaching ecological damage. We are left with the hopeful message that, ‘“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”’
It is clear that Shrubsole ‘cares a whole awful lot’. From the dedication in mapping the possible rainforest zones, to the simple delight that a sighting of a lichen can bring, it is clear that a connection with nature is enriching. Shrubsole comments, ‘Temperate rainforests are full of gifts for those who visit them.’ He contends that visits to rainforests can be affirming, ‘You’ll return from a visit to a British rainforest soaked from head to toe, but feeling all the more alive for it.’
However, Shrubsole also highlights that access to the countryside and to Britain’s temperate rainforests can be problematic at best. ‘But if you want to see much of the English countryside, you need to trespass. We still only have a Right to Roam over 8 per cent of England; over the other 92 per cent, the law of trespass still reigns supreme.’ In January 2023 in England, access to the countryside was further limited when a ban on wild camping on Dartmoor was imposed. This now means that there is no place in England and Wales to legally wild camp. There is an irony that humans are now being excluded from nature, when before exclusion fences limited wildlife from damaging saplings and allowed the regrowth of nature.
When access is granted- or circumvented- Shrubsole describes a temperate rainforest world that is ‘both familiar and strangely alien.’ His enjoyment comes from the observation of the tiny details of these rainforest ecosystems- details which are lost when the re-introduction of large animals make for better publicity. ‘It feels to me that we need to become much more interested in the minutia of the natural world around us. The little things are just as important as the charismatic megafauna.’
Our Once and Future Home
‘The Lost Rainforests of Britain’ then is a book which both reflects on the past and looks hopefully forwards. Shrubsole argues passionately that ‘We have a moral obligation to try and repair the damage caused by our ancestors.’ Perhaps we could extend this further into a moral obligation to our descendants to restore temperate rainforests, even if it takes centuries. Shrubsole is cautious about the ingrained, simple narrative of tree plantations, arguing that a dynamic ecosystem is one that can be self-regulating and self-renewing, full of species to appreciate and marvel at. ‘Our temperate rainforests support an abundance of life. They teem with hundreds of species of lichen, many of which are deemed by ecologists to be of international importance.’
He closes the book optimistically, highlighting that given a small chance, nature can renew itself, as it has done through time. ‘[I]t demonstrates how quickly woodland can naturally regenerate when it’s given half a chance.’ Granting nature a chance is a common refrain in ecological books and Shrubsole argues that it can be easy to forget that ‘life finds a way.’ ‘We can also overlook the gradual resurgence of nature, and forget its powers of renewal.’
He does not advocate that humans should just step back entirely and let nature take its course, but instead advocates for community engagement and a new form of ‘social commons’, which allows rainforests and humans to work together, perhaps in the most symbiotic manner that has ever been attempted. ‘But to have any hope of success, rainforest restoration has to be done with people at its heart. If we’re to bring back our lost rainforests, it’ll prove impossible to do so without the active engagement of the communities who live in and around them.’
‘A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.’
Images in this review
Roses are Amber
I’d like to hope that our own rainforests can be part of our future🌳🌳🌳🌳
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2023
Roses are Amber
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2023
Author Guy Shrubsole puts forward a realistic case with positive solutions to help combat the climate crisis in our own back yard. I am sure that I am not alone in discovering that Britain had and has its own rainforests. However, like those in the Amazon, they are under serious threat. In Britain over-grazing from sheep and deer, coupled with fern loving Victorians, mass conifer forests and the introduction of Rhododendrons have endangered our own carbon absorbing ancient woodlands.
Turning the past around is multi-pronged; it’s not just planting more trees and effects won’t happen overnight but small comebacks are beginning and more awareness is needed if Britain is to restore it’s much needed rainforests.
This book has been on my wish list for a while and I am glad that I finally got a copy. It is very readable, while highlighting how our rainforests have been endangered. With more public awareness, I’d like to hope that our own rainforests can be part of our future.
Images in this review
K Thompson
Insightful look into an almost disappeared ecosystem
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2024