Grazed Fight to save fragment of ancient Dartmoor woodland

There are acorns T galore and tiny oaks sprouting from tussocky grass beside the gnarled ancient trees of Black-a-Tor copse on the northern slopes of Dartmoor National Park.

- Patrick Barkham

But each tiny sapling grows no higher than a sheep's chin and there it stays, its new shoots and tender leaves repeatedly shorn each spring by the livestock roaming through this national nature reserve.

Now Guy Shrubsole, the campaigner and author of The Lost Rainforests of Britain, is urging the authorities to take action to save this unique fragment of ancient temperate forest.

"Overgrazing by sheep is preventing any saplings and young trees from growing on the edge of this amazing temperate rainforest, and without new trees Black-a-Tor copse will eventually die," said Shrubsole. "We urgently need the landowner, the national park and the conservation authorities to step in and save this unique and special place."

Alongside the renowned Wistman's Wood, Black-a-Tor copse is one of only three ancient, high-altitude oak woodlands on Dartmoor, a habitat that is home to a plethora of spectacular bryophytes, lichens and rare invertebrates such as the ash-black slug and the blue ground beetle.

Because Black-a-Tor copse's oaks are growing in a severe moorland environment more than 360 metres above sea level, the trees do not stretch much above six metres in height and are twisted by the wind.