Wet woodland

I recently visited home in Pembrokeshire with the kids. Its damp climate, streams and valleys give rise to the wet woodlands which is the landscape I miss the most. It’s a very atmospheric environment – every surface draped with mosses and dangly lichens, boggy bits we used to get stuck in and often a ruin always referred to as the ‘Witch’s house’ just to add suspense and excitement. There are a few on my parent’s farm (apparently many witches too!).  

Wet woodland is a broad definition as the habitat varies across the regions due to different climates, soil types, soil pH, soil wetness, so there will be different trees, plants and creatures in different parts of the country, for example willow is typically found in damp areas, but different willows will prefer different places. Riparian woodland is a type of wet woodland with woods and vegetation along a river and seem quite open along the riverbank. Other wet woodlands may be more boggy and enclosed.  

They’re a very calming environment to be in due a factor of sensory stimuli – colours: greens, yellows, blues, browns; sounds: water, birds, squiggy mud; smells – mud, plants, damp; feel – dampness on skin, coolness of the air, the negative ions given off by moving water (that feeling of clean, sparkling skin you get from a visit to the beach on a stormy day). These all have a hugely restorative effect on our wellbeing – no wonder I enjoy being in the damp outdoors of Pembrokeshire!  

Many wet woodlands have been drained and cleared for farming purposes in the past but there is now an understanding of their important contribution to reducing flooding further downstream in low lying areas, and there is a move to conserve these important, and sometimes ancient, habitats and to create new woodland. To be involved in a project doing either conservation or creation would be great fun, I’d be in my element, like a toad under a damp, mossy rock!  

If you’d like to visit a wet woodland (or any other woodland), visit https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/ for your local sites. I’d love to hear whether you enjoy them as much as I do.