The last fragments of ancient Irish rainforests may face a new threat … trees

By Tommy Greene
The Guardian
February 4, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

This could almost be part of Lapland, up here,” says retired researcher John Spence, approaching a clearing in the Correl Glen nature reserve in Fermanagh, near Northern Ireland’s land border with the county of Leitrim. Spence pauses to point out oak, hazel, birch, ash and alder trees, along with a series of rare “filmy” ferns, wild strawberry bushes and honeysuckle. There are well over 100 species of lichen in this small patch of temperate rainforest alone. These are the “gnarled oakwood remnants of the ancient Irish rainforests”, says Spence, who spent his career researching aquatic ecosystems. Tiny patches of them are scattered over this region, falling on both sides of the border. Today, this fragment is encircled by stretches of tightly packed coniferous plantations. “When I was young in the 50s, there was none of this coniferous forest,” he says, gesturing towards one darkening, square grid of pine. “It was all moorland.”

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