In 2023 Devon Wildlife Trust took on the ownership of 30 hectares of sheep-grazed land close to the market town of Totnes. The charity then announced its ambition to create a new temperate rainforest on the site.

Now it has finished the crucial first task of planting 17,000 native species trees and shrubs. As the decades pass these will mature to provide the vital ingredients needed by nature to become temperate rainforest.

The land at Bowden Pillars was purchased with support from insurance giant Aviva and forms part of a wider initiative between the company and The Wildlife Trusts to create temperate rainforests across the UK.

Temperate rainforests are unique ecosystems characterised by their damp and humid conditions. In turn, these can support a rich and unique range of wildlife.

In centuries past these landscapes accounted for 20% of Britain’s land area and dominated its western regions, including Devon and Cornwall. Today just 1% of temperate rainforests remain. Rare surviving examples include Wistman’s Wood and Dart Valley nature reserve on Dartmoor.

The 17,000 new trees and shrubs have been planted across one third of the Bowden Pillars site and include a mix of native species which are designed to mimic existing temperate rainforests. The saplings include oak, birch, rowan, holly, alder, willow, and hazel. All were sourced locally, many from tree nurseries run by Devon Wildlife Trust and its partners Moor Trees and Tamar Trees. Each tender young tree has been protected using its own compostable tree guard.

The pattern of tree planting at Bowden Pillars has been carefully designed to create a mosaic landscape in which woodland is interspersed with open glades and wildflower meadows.

Planting 17,000 saplings has proved to be a monumental effort involving Devon Wildlife Trust staff, an army of local volunteers and dozens of people drawn from Totnes and other local communities.

Claire Inglis is Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve Officer and has led the temperate rainforest creation project. Claire said:

“I’m so proud of what we and local people have created here at Bowden Pillars. The weather hasn’t always been the kindest to us. This past winter has been one of the wettest on record and yet our volunteers have still turned up regularly, while the community planting days we organised also attracted good numbers of local people. Without their efforts we couldn’t have planted so many trees so swiftly.”

Creating a new temperate rainforest is a long-term project. In years to come the new nature reserve will provide a haven for animals including stoats and pine martens, as well as rare birds such as wood warblers, redstarts, and pied flycatchers. Its woodland will support an abundance of mosses, liverworts, lichens, and ferns – many of which will grow on its trees or cover boulders. These conditions will also be ideal for fungi, including globally rare species like hazel gloves fungus.

At present access to Bowden Pillars nature reserve is via public footpaths and permissive paths. Deer fencing has been installed while the young trees are establishing themselves. Eventually this will be removed leaving a more mature wood and pasture landscape teeming with wildlife and with greater access for local people.

Find out more about the Bowden Pillars project