Volunteers have spent the last three years turning 105 acres into a forest. Thirty thousand trees. That’s what they planted at Creg y Cowin.
It was just grazing land before. Low value. Useless for agriculture really, but perfect for nature to reclaim. The Manx Wildlife Trust bought the site in 2023 and got to work.
Graham Makepeace-Warne, the charity’s chief executive, isn’t shy about his claims. He calls the Isle of Man “almost 100% suitable” for temperate rainforests.
Why? Look at the geography. The island sits right in the middle of a specific climatic band. It stretches from the western coasts of Britain to the eastern shore of Ireland. A literal corridor for this type of woodland.
Makepeace-Warne says the project needed two things: planting and time. They have hundreds of volunteers doing the heavy lifting. The results? Tree survival rates are hitting 98% in some spots.
That is rare.
What makes it work
The climate here is stubborn. Consistently wet. Mild. Never too cold. Never too hot.
Conservationist Carl Rowlinson calls it the “Goldilocks zone.”
He has done similar work in Cornwall and recognizes the signs. Early indicators appear quickly if the conditions are right. Mosses. Lichens. Ferns growing on top of other ferns.
“Someone described temperate rainforest as plants growing on plants growing plants,” Makepeace-Warne notes.
It requires a specific recipe of weather and geography. The Isle of Man has it. Slap bang in the middle, he says.
A century-long bet
This isn’t a quick fix.
The Creg y Cowin site is operating on a 100-year plan. Trees need 50 to 70 years to truly mature. Some of the people planting these seedlings won’t be around to see the canopy close.
That’s the point though. Environmental change requires long-term thinking.
“We’ve got to think like nature,” Makepeace-Warne argues.
And they are aiming bigger. Another site called Glen Auldyn is being acquired. Similar concept but massive scale. The trust knows it’s playing a waiting game.
Where did they go?
You might not picture a lush, dripping rainforest when you think of the Isle of Man. Fair enough. But those ecosystems used to cover almost the entire island.
Human activity changed that. Centuries of farming and timber extraction stripped the land. In some places, less than 1% of the original woodland remains.
Recovering that feels almost rebellious now.
More than just trees
Carl Rowlinson visited from the Plant One project in Cornwall to share ideas. He is tired of fragmented conservation. Treating rivers separate from land. Land separate from sea.
He wants “restoration,” not just preservation. Linking everything on the ground to the ocean out past the breakers.
They’re all connected. It’s one ecosystem rather than a fragmented load.
Healthy woodland means healthy soil. It holds back floodwaters. It stops pollution from entering waterways. Those changes ripple out. The marine ecosystem benefits. The water gets cleaner.
Why aren’t we doing this everywhere?
The island is getting wetter in the best possible way. The trees are staying alive. The moss is climbing higher.
It’s early days for Creg y Cowin but the roots are taking hold. The next generation will inherit the canopy. We just plant the seeds.
