Rainforest to be island's largest nature reserve

Plans to create the Isle of Man's largest nature reserve as part of a £38m temperate rainforest restoration scheme have been revealed.

The Wildlife Trusts programme aims to re-establish "rare and biodiverse" rainforests across the world, aiming to remove 800,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere.

Land at Glen Auldyn on the outskirts of Ramsey is to become home to a variety of trees, set to evolve over many decades, marking the second project of its kind in the island.

Manx Wildlife Trust chief executive Leigh Morris said it would "connect fragments of forest in the north of the island" and "coherently join them together".

Creg y Cowin in East Baldwin was named in 2023 as one of the first places to benefit from the recovery project.

But the 750 acres (303 hectares) zoned for planting in Glen Auldyn represents the largest area to enter the programme so far.

Mr Morris said: "Its size provides a fantastic opportunity for landscape scale nature conservation and creates a model for how the Isle of Man uplands could be managed in the future.

"We're really hoping that this glen and the moorland that goes with it becomes an example of how the wildlife trust and the local community and farming can really work together."

The site is set to become over seven times the size of the island's largest nature reserve.

Tree seeds have been gathered from glens across the island, to be grown at a nursery in the nearby Milntown Estate.

Species include the native Manx oak, downy birch, mountain ash, holly, alder, willows, and hazel.

Mr Morris said MWT also hoped the reserve would encourage more diverse wildlife back to the area.

He said ring ouzels and wood warblers no longer nested on the island, but "maybe they'll come back when we build that forest".

While the funding from the scheme had enabled the project to be brought forward, Mr Morris said it had been a long term goal of the organisation.

He said it was "in the ambition of Manx Wildlife Trust for decades" and was "part of a whole ambition to try to connect fragments of forest in the north of the island and try and coherently join them together".

"There's a far stronger longer term ambition about the north of the island and bringing woodlands and forest back. It's a special moment," he added.

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