CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Hello and welcome to Nature Fix with me,
Claire Hickinbotham.
Every month we take you with us to meet the people whose lives
have been changed by the outdoors and join them in a
place that inspires them.
Today I'm leaving you deep in the forest with host Jo Dyson,
who's joining explorer, TV presenter and writer Levison
Wood.
Levison's taking us on a walk to an Iron Age hill fort through
one of the UK's remaining ancient temperate rainforests in
Dartmoor.
We'll be uncovering the folklore, secret histories and
stories of trees and we'll find out why you should allow
yourself to get lost in the woods.
JO DYSON: Being around trees always makes you feel better and
today I'm at Hembury and Holne Woods on Dartmoor National Park
in Devon.
Dartmoor's home to some of the UK's rare ancient forests. These
trees have stories to tell. We'll be hiking up above the
tree canopies to take in a panoramic viewpoint. And to do
that, I'm meeting Levison Wood.
LEVISON WOOD: Hey Jo, how are you doing?
JO DYSON: Oh Lev, good to see you.
LEVISON WOOD: Likewise.
JO DYSON: So this is your new neighbourhood. You've moved to
Devon.
LEVISON WOOD: I have. I've just moved to Devon and it's a
beautiful summer to spend in the countryside and I thought i'd
come exploring so my first time here in Holne woods.
JO DYSON: So you don't know where we're going exactly?
LEVISON WOOD: I've got no idea to say let's go and get lost in
the woods shall we?
JO DYSON: Love that!
Okay Lev, I think it's up and over this style.
LEVISON WOOD: Do my best
JO DYSON: Here's another wooden sign. Which way? Okay, fort,
right, so still up?
LEVISON WOOD: Still going up, we're in the right direction.
JO DYSON: What are these trees with the really tall tree trunks
and the canopy at the top?
LEVISON WOOD: Yeah, these are all oak. Very tall though, these
ones, aren't they?
JO DYSON: Think of oak trees as very sort of big, deep canopies,
whereas these seem to me something that you'd see in
rainforests because there's so much trunk and bark.
LEVISON WOOD: Well, don't forget this is actually a rainforest,
believe it or not.
JO DYSON: Is it?!
LEVISON WOOD: This is a temperate rainforest. Yeah, a
lot of Devon, Cornwall, parts of Wales. This was all part of
Britain's ancient rainforest. You know, those coastal currents
that came off the Atlantic provided a lot of rain. I can
vouch for the fact that it rains a lot here in Devon.
It feels like a rainforest.
JO DYSON: And look how the light falls through amongst the leaves
at the top of the canopy.
LEVISON WOOD: And the ivy as well, and the moss and lichen,
and these little vines coming down. We don't normally
associate rainforests with the UK, but we do have them. This is
part of an ancient ecosystem.
Some of these trees are probably in excess of 400 or 500 years
old. For hundreds of years, these ones we know, this area
has been pretty intact since the year 1600. So that's why the
trees are so tall and big and healthy, because it's a very
natural, wild area.
JO DYSON: So, Levison, I know you went to University Of
Nottingham and read history there, but then you chose to
join the military. What brought you to that decision?
LEVISON WOOD: Well, you know, I was always drawn to this idea of
adventure, but it was probably my grandfather and my dad who
were both soldiers and actually goes back in the family. And I
kind of just wanted to do my bit. And so I thought it would
be a useful thing to do to be able to enable me to then travel
for a living.
So it's kind of a stepping stone to becoming an explorer.
JO DYSON: What are some of the main things that the military
taught you do you feel?
LEVISON WOOD: Well you learn a lot of skills of course you
learn how to handle yourself you learn to push yourself you learn
how to go beyond anything you'd ever thought possible in terms
of your physical and mental limits but I think more
importantly it helps you to manage risk.
It enables you to realize that you can do far more than you
ever thought possible.
And actually risk in it in many ways it's quite healthy is
pushing yourself and it's not something to be completely
avoided it helps you get over your fears.
And most importantly of all i think just having a really good
network of people friends ex-army guys men and women that
are doing interesting things that's kind of set me up to be
an explorer and to be able to do what i'm doing now.
JO DYSON: So Levison you have been all around the world,
perhaps to more countries than most people being an explorer
and adventurer. What are some of the most memorable moments from
your travels?
LEVISON WOOD: Gosh, that's a tough one. I mean, I've been
very lucky to travel in upwards of 120 countries now.
JO DYSON: 120?
LEVISON WOOD: Yeah, in all sorts of different environments,
walking along the Nile for nine months, that was 4,250 miles.
I walked the length of the Himalayas, all of Central
America, across the deserts of Arabia.
So some amazing expeditions. But really what I found most
incredible was the people, the communities that I've met along
the way.
And I met this old gentleman, must have been at least 80 years
old, walking up these mountains with a big bag on his back, one
of those big baskets, filled with seeds.
And since his wife had passed away 20 years before, he'd just
spent his life walking around the hills of Nepal planting
seeds. So the next generation can benefit from, you know,
those trees.
JO DYSON: I mean, it's quite timely as well as you're about
to become a father thinking about the next generation.
LEVISON WOOD: Well, absolutely. I'm sure that will be one of the
first things that I do when my daughter's old enough is take
her out to go for a walk in the woods.
JO DYSON: Oh, so you know you're having a girl?
LEVISON WOOD: Yeah!
JO DYSON: Spoiler!
LEVISON WOOD: Spoiler alert!
JO DYSON: I think he's going to be an adventure girl isn't she?
LEVISON WOOD: She is, she's going to be a little explorer!
My travels have taught me above all else the importance of
respecting nature because it can be and is often portrayed to be
a dangerous world out there and people always ask me what's
what's the most dangerous situation you've been and i've
been in quite a few you know, i've been snapped up by
crocodile and chased by lions and hippos along the Nile.
And you know walk through very treacherous jungles in Central
America in the Amazon where I've come to be close to snakes and
all sorts of perilous things but what you've got to remember is
that actually walking in a natural world it's as much there
for the wildlife as it is for us and if you just have a healthy
respect for the natural world then we can just live in much
more harmony.
JO DYSON: I think we need to come back through the gate, we
must have passed the turning. We're definitely getting lost in
the woods!
Shall we continue our ascent up to the fort?
LEVISON WOOD: Let's climb this mountain!
JO DYSON: So, Levison, I know you've written books and created
documentaries on your huge expeditions and challenges. And
then the latest book, The Great Tree Story. Why trees?
LEVISON WOOD: Well, quite apart from having an appropriate
surname, I thought that trees deserve more recognition. And
I've been fortunate to spend a lot of my time on these
expeditions in forests.
And for a lot of that time, I didn't really understand too
much about why trees are so important. And it was only after
a visit to the Amazon Rainforest where I started to really take
seriously studying just how important trees are, that I
learned so many things and I wanted to share that.
I always remember the time I planted a conker tree when I was
10 years old and that tree is still there in my front yard.
JO DYSON: It actually grew!
LEVISON WOOD: It actually grew, yeah. We all have a deep
connection to trees and whether we know it or not.
JO DYSON: And so if anyone reading this but could do one
thing as a result, what would you want them to do?
LEVISON WOOD: Well, there's obviously lots of things that
people can do, supporting charities, being a bit more
conscious about where your food comes from, what kind of food
you eat, eating seasonally, being a bit more sustainable in
your mindset about consumerism, all of that stuff.
But more importantly, I think it's just going outside,
spending time in nature. You can only really appreciate and love
something if you immerse yourself in it. Let's go and hug
a tree.
JO DYSON: Perhaps we should try it now.
LEVISON WOOD: Shall we go and hug a tree?
JO DYSON: Do we think this is a good tree-hugging tree?
LEVISON WOOD: I like this. This is a great tree-hugging tree.
JO DYSON: Why don't you go first? So you can show me how I
do it.
LEVISON WOOD: Here we go. Hug this tree arms right around it's
a very big one isn't it?
JO DYSON: It is can you touch your hand?
LEVISON WOOD: No!
There we go you can feel the energy of the tree!
JO DYSON: Let me give it a go!
The moss is a bit scratchy!
LEVISON WOOD: How do you feel Jo? Connected to nature?
JO DYSON: I do it feels very sturdy doesn't it?
LEVISON WOOD: There we go!
It's important to remember that trees and forests play such an
important part in cultures all around the world.
The importance that trees have played in mythology and
folklore, storytelling throughout the ages. For
example, here in in Dartmoor, in the West Country, it's well
known that prior to the Romans, here in Wales, we're the centre
of Celtic and pagan culture, where you had the Druids.
The word druid actually means an oak seer, people who commune and
talk to the oak trees.
So oak trees have had this very special role in mythology and
storytelling for a very long time.
If you go into your local churchyard and you see an old-
Thousand-year-old Norman Church, usually there's a yew tree next
to it. Well, the yew trees were, and still are, known for their
longevity.
Some of them date back three, four, five thousand years.
And what's really interesting is that the Celts and the pagan
tribes of Britain used to worship these trees and held
them as sacred because they did live for so long.
So it's where they were seen as the trees of immortality and so
that's where they used to bury their dead.
So you've got to remember next time you see your
thousand-year-old church, you've got to remember that that yew
tree next to it has probably been there for a couple of
thousand years longer.
The trees came long before the churches.
They are symbols of rebirth and symbols of our connection to
nature. I'm sure you've been into a pub at some point called
the Green Man.
JO DYSON: I think so, yeah.
LEVISON WOOD: There we go. The Green Man is, again, this symbol
of a connection to nature. And it's not just in the UK, but the
Green Man pops up all over the world.
It's in Rajasthani culture in India. You'll see it in ancient
Persia, ancient Greece, ancient Rome.
This symbol of a man or a woman with leaves coming out of their
hair. Carved into ancient temples, churches. The same
symbol, it's a manifestation of that ancient human connection to
nature.
JO DYSON: So we've just come through a narrow path with ferns
sweeping either side of us into this sort of bigger enclosure,
which I think-
Are we at the hill fort do you think?
LEVISON WOOD: We're pretty much on top of it. There's no actual-
They call it the castle, but there's no castle here right
now. It's just a big mound and this is an Iron age fort so I
think it dates back to about 500bc.
And then when the Romans came I guess the Romans might have
taken over part of it and then apparently the Normans built
something here on top when they landed in 1066 so it's been in
use for a good many years.
That's a great view though if you can look beyond over the
tops of the canopy there you can see the the forest extending
over there towards Dartmoor And then just these rolling,
beautiful patchwork of fields and mini forests.
It's magical.
JO DYSON: I mean, looking around at all these variety of trees
that we can see in front of us. I mean, I know I'm feeling good
right now because we've done a walk. But what are the other
benefits that trees can bring to people?
LEVISON WOOD: Well, trees provide enormous benefits. I
mean, that oak tree just there probably hosts somewhere between
two and three thousand different species.
So they provide enormous harbours for biodiversity, which
means that they are so important for the ecosystem that we live
in. But as humans, you know, trees play a very important
role.
They obviously sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,
making the world habitable, frankly.
They regulate the climatic conditions, they transpire water
to create rain, which is obviously very important for our
life here.
They cool the ambient temperature of the earth as
well, so where there's forests, temperatures are much lower than
places where there aren't.
Look at a desert, for example, and see what happens there.
They stabilize the soil, so when you deforest, particularly
hillsides and mountains like in the Himalayas, for instance,
when you start cutting down trees, the soil becomes eroded
and it completely disrupts the ecosystem because it reduces the
topsoil so new trees simply can't grow.
Which increases things like avalanches or landslides, which
in turn can have enormously disastrous consequences for
humans in terms of the people who live in those quite fragile
ecosystems.
We saw it just a couple of years ago in places like Afghanistan,
Pakistan, huge floods, a lot of that was down to deforestation
and we see it all around the world.
So trees literally hold the soil and the earth together.
But just sitting under a tree, It provides shade, it provides
that space for us to just relax and unwind in a way that we've
done for our entire evolutionary existence.
Just sitting under a tree is what we're here for I think it's
the best thing that we can possibly do and just meditating
and taking it all in.
JO DYSON: So we've left the hill fort where it was getting quite
warm out in the open and now we're coming through another
fern line pathway down through the trees and already it feels
much cooler doesn't it?
LEVISON WOOD: A good few degrees cooler down here in the beauty
of the shade.
Feels wonderful just like a magical glades down here isn't
it the river dart there flowing through this ancient woodland-
It's a beautiful beautiful place.
JO DYSON: I've just loved the variety of today Levison the
woodland area the views.
LEVISON WOOD: Well it's been quite the expedition today
hasn't it?
JO DYSON: Well if you think it's been then-
LEVISON WOOD: I've loved every moment!
You know what I think just this idea that we've been talking
about today of spending time in the woods you don't have to go
overseas you don't have to travel to the Amazon or the
congo you can go and experience a great british woodland pretty
much anywhere in the UK.
And some really beautiful ones out there here Holne Woods and
Hembury you've got this whole spectrum of biodiversity you've
got this ancient woodland in an ancient temperate rainforest
with a historical site.
You know these trees have got so many stories to tell and this
has been a very special place for a very long time and it
continues to be so and it continues to inspire people and
I feel Very inspired just being here and taking it all in.
And we're very lucky. It's a beautiful day. And there's
nowhere I'd rather be right now than having a good old walk in
the woods.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Thanks for listening to Nature Fix. We'll
be back next month with a new episode.
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And if you love nature, check out National Trust Podcast's
Wild Tales. Or for little ears; Ranger Rae and the Wildlifers.
Bye for now.