Page 6 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #11
P. 6
WILDMONTH
Seven essential wildlife events to enjoy this
month, compiled by Ben Hoare.
1 | ATLANTIC OAKWOODS
Wild wood
A tree is the “grandest, and most exposure to prevailing winds and poor
beautiful of all the productions of soil. They look especially dramatic
this Earth”, wrote the artist William when leafless after autumn gales.
Gilpin in 1791. Published during the Similar woods can be found clinging
Romantic era, his influential book to damp hillsides in other parts of
Remarks on Forest Scenery promoted south-west England, such as Exmoor
the idea of woods as picturesque and the Quantock Hills, and in the far
places that stir the soul. That is west of Wales and Scotland. Ecologists
certainly true of Wistman’s Wood, on refer to them as Atlantic oakwoods, or
Dartmoor in Devon, which is often – more poetically – ‘Celtic rainforest’.
described as ‘magical’ or ‘fairytale’. In They are nationally important for
one of his columns for BBC Wildlife lichens and three groups of ancient,
Magazine, nature writer Richard flowerless plants: mosses, ferns and
Mabey called it a “goblin” wood and liverworts. Wistman’s Wood alone
quoted novelist John Fowles: “It is the supports around 120 species of lichen. ONLINE
ASC Photography/Getty that is so haunting.” trees at: ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk FORESTS OF THE
silence, the waitingness of the place,
GET INVOLVED Help record ancient
IMAGINATION
The wizened, stunted oaks of
Cultural importance of woods
Wistman’s Wood are contorted into
National Tree Week is 24 November–
strange shapes by a combination of
2 December: treecouncil.org.uk
