Rating: 5 out of 5

This took some reading but was worthwhile and I’ve learned a lot in the process. Obviously mainly about the temperate rainforests that we still have in Britain, and about those that we’ve lost. I feel that I should have known more about them already but this book plugged the gap well.

A few sections that I highlighted:

“the term ‘Gaelic’ itself derives from a word meaning ‘forest people. The Clearances not only removed people from the land; they sundered their connection to nature. The landowners who expelled them introduced ecological monocultures in their place, for profit and sport. Sheep, deer and rhododendron ravaged many of the surviving rainforests, erasing places once cherished by the Gaelic-speaking peoples who lived in their midst. Given such a heritage, restoring Scotland’s rainforests seems less like an exotic imposition and more a mission of national reclamation.”

“rainforest restoration has 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: the people who will walk in them, root out invasive species, mend fences, cull deer, plant trees, nurture saplings. In short, the people who will love them and care for them.”

I wish I’d taken more notes about the percentages that should be rainforests as compared to those that are. I might try and find them actually.

The coda has some useful resources to refer to, from organisations who are working in the area, to botanists to follow.

Originally posted to my Goodreads account