Forest Gardens: evidence of increased biodiversity?

Thanks all for your wonderful contributions and offers of help. Do keep adding to this thread - the Environment Bill feels like a great opportunity for the communities we're hoping to support.

I'll let you know what the response from BANES is. I'll certainly be inviting the environment manager to our AGM!

that's fair enough - I wasn't intending to summarise the entire BUGs results as "trees are the answer", just that it's one element of the study that may be relevant to the OP

Many standard gardens have lower biodiversity because the owners
want it that way, and zap everything with nasty chemicals. It's much
harder to do that with trees, so this might be a reason for
encouraging more trees and shrubs in treeless gardens.

But 'trees are the answer' is probably an over-interpretation of the
BUGS results. On my reading of the published literature that came
out of BUGS the 'key to increasing biodiversity' was diversity of
habitat types. So yes, trees and shrubs would help a treeless
garden, but equally other habitats would help a fully-treed area. A
lawn and pond can be the equivalent of a clearing in a wood,
providing habitat variation and 'edge'. A bit of everything is best.

This is very exciting and makes me want to move to Bath!

So, the following is not directly related to Forest Gardens but may be useful....the BUGS study by Sheffield uni looked at biodiversity in urban gardens and found that presence of trees and shrubs is key to increasing biodoversity (ie compared to gardens that are solely lawns + herbaceous plantings.) Link including references to scientific papers below. Ken Thompson also published some of the findings as the book 'No Nettles Required'

http://www.bugs.group.shef.ac.uk/

Thanks for sharing, would love to know how your project progresses

At a tangent to your question, one of my on-hold projects is a community forest garden at Fairfield House, Bath. I was supposed to do an introduction to permaculture and forest gardening as fundraising event for Fairfield House the outcome of which was to engage the Rastafarian community to design and implement a forest garden. But it was booked exactly when covid kicked in, so was cancelled. Not sure when it is likely to happen now, but there is definite interest.

Hi Paul, I found this:

"Structurally complex habitats tend to contain more species and higher total abundances than simple habitats." (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1281-8). The paper's example is coral reef, but I think this statement would equally apply to a structurally complex forest garden habitat.

Best wishes

Nigel

What a good conversation to have had and a great opportunity for BANEs. I’ll see what I can dig out and ask those taking part in my green space and healthcare course. One thing that strikes me, is that Forest Gardens are deliberately designed to encourage biodiversity to enable a complex natural eco-system to evolve over time. This is quite different from the principles that are used to design other types of community gardens. However, I guess that proving that FGs provide more biodiversity than a rewilding program for example is quite difficult. I’ll see what I can do to help.

Paul, Jake

Thank you, very kind.

I read it, comments attached.

Thanks. Its conclusion: there is a somewhat higher biodiversity in the Dartington forest garden than in Silverdale reclaimed woodlands (though statistically insignificant) … it should be researched more thoroughly to … promote Forest Gardens instead of both conventional forestry and agriculture … as a land restoration option as they have many outstanding traits.

Follow up could focus in on the striking increase in Hymenoptera (membrane winged insects including Bees and Wasps, Sawflies and Ants) - perhaps most important as they are perhaps the most beneficial insects for us. The soil creatures (Collembola/Springtails, Nematoda & Diplopoda) are also crucial for planetary health. These are what stand out in the chart in the jpg initially shared.

As promised by Jake, Mai got in touch. Here's her dissertation.