Manx Wildlife Trust is excited to announce the launch of a transformative rainforest restoration project at Glen Auldyn, made possible by The Wildlife Trusts’ partnership with Aviva.

At 1,124 acres, with 750 acres identified as suitable for temperate rainforest restoration, this will be the largest tree planting area to join the UK-wide Rainforest Recovery Programme and become the biggest nature reserve on the Island.

Why it matters:
Britain and Ireland’s temperate rainforests now cover less than 1% of Great Britain. The restoration of this precious habitat is part of a wider programme of nature-based projects funded by Aviva to remove carbon from the atmosphere and to help nature recover.

Restoring Glen Auldyn will:

• Create vital habitat for rare and threatened wildlife

• Support flood resilience in a high-risk area

• Capture carbon to fight climate change

• Offer new educational, employment, and volunteering opportunities for local communities

• Enhance the Island’s role as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve leader

Local communities in and around Ramsey in the north of the Isle of Man will be closely involved in the project and will benefit from increased access to nature, volunteering, educational, and employment opportunities. Rainforest restoration will also provide cleaner air and water, and reduce the risk of flooding in an area of high flood risk.

The Wildlife Trusts’ partnership with Aviva funds the restoration of temperate rainforests in areas where they used to grow along the damper, western climes of Britain & Ireland. The few remaining fragments of rainforests in the Isle of Man are largely confined to the steep-sided gorges in the national glens, with many in close proximity to Glen Auldyn.

Tree seeds will be gathered from the glens and grown in MWT’s nursery at Milntown at the base of Glen Auldyn. Volunteers are already involved in the tree nursery which was initially set up to provide trees for MWT’s rainforest restoration at Creg y Cowin and Glion Darragh. Local residents are invited to play a central role in the project, which will spend an initial two years conducting ecological surveys of the moorland, peatland, glens, and existing woodland. During this time, the site will continue to be grazed, and thereafter, MWT is keen to showcase Glen Auldyn as a model of how Manx uplands could be best managed and farmed for people and wildlife alike. Continuing to farm appropriate areas is paramount to MWT.

Tree species at Glen Auldyn will include native Manx oak, downy birch, mountain ash, holly, alder, willows, and hazel. Manx Wildlife Trust hopes the reserve will become a haven for threatened birds such as hen harrier, for which the Isle of Man is internationally important, ring ouzel, and wood warblers (which both used to breed in the area but are no longer found breeding in the Isle of Man). Wet conditions will support an abundance of mosses, liverworts, lichens, and ferns – many of which grow on the trees or cover boulders and ravines. It will become a special place for nature and the Island’s whole-nation UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

We look forward to sharing more information as this ambitious initiative evolves!