How can attentive foraging practices in habitats at Rivington Terraced Gardens offer a different way of understanding human habitat manipulation and highlight human dependence on Holocene stability?
Colin Unsworth
Introduction
Rivington Terraced Gardens is a landscaped woodland in Lancashire. Situated on the western steep of Winter Hill and Rivington Pike on the West Pennine Moors, the site is a prime example of human habitat manipulation with open moorland transformed into a network of oriental style gardens and woodland connected by a network of paved walkways. Today it has a rich and diverse ecology, but this is not simply the result of the creation of the gardens but also from a period of abandonment and ecological enrichment. Therefore, this highlights the potential for disturbed and damaged landscapes to act as crucial, although somewhat unconventional, sites of renewed ecological biodiversity (Tsing, 2015).
While under the ownership of soap magnate William Hesketh Leverhulme, building and planting began in 1909, and over the next 12 years, the hillside was transformed into an oriental, ornamental garden. Designed by Thomas Mawson, the gardens transformed a moorland hillside into terraced gardens and wooded areas, boasting oriental features such as an Italian bathing lake, the Pigeon Tower, the Seven Arch Bridge, a ravine with waterfalls and bridges, and a Japanese lake, all built by manual labour (Smith, 1998). The site was managed and maintained until Leverhulme’s death in 1925. Consequently, the gardens fell into disrepair and were finally abandoned in 1939. By the 1970s, rhododendron had taken a stranglehold on the gardens, the woodland was overgrown, and many of the paths were no longer navigable, demonstrating agency in the ecological succession of the gardens. In 2016, Groundworks and the Rivington Heritage Trust secured a £3.4M grant, and the aim of the work was renovation of specific areas rather than a restoration of the gardens, as that would require a far greater investment (Landscape Institute, 2016).
A project of this scale tells a story of human mastery over nature, but the nature that thrived within it during the abandonment period highlights the temporal fragility of this control.
Foraging is an attentive, embodied practice that involves slowing down and noticing; it acts as a vehicle for encouraging a state of flow (Webster and Rimmington, 2023). It requires tuning into and understanding ecology and habitats where “we come to know and enact a world from inhabiting it” (Anderson and Harrison, 2010, p. 9). Rivington Terraced Gardens affords a variety of habitats such as pine and spruce woodland, mixed deciduous woodland, open pastureland and moorland. For the forager, each habitat sustains species specific to its ecology.
The transformation of this Lancashire hillside is a significant demonstration of the human ability to manipulate habitats, creating a lush, vibrant and natural feeling landscape on what was previously a windswept moorland hillside. This ability to manipulate our surroundings can appear that, as a species, we are not bound by habitats and ecosystems like other creatures; we simply create them. As Rinaldi (2017) notes, humans were previously passive inhabitants who evolved into active constructors. Foraging, however, reveals ecological dependence; species thrive with “the abundance of life” (Tsing, 2015, p. 144) when the conditions are right. During the derelict period, this dependence was on the climatic stability of the current Holocene epoch, which will be discussed later in this essay. Human agency is a thread that weaves through the story of this hillside from the creation of private gardens to the successive guardians of corporations and volunteers who stepped in at each stage to save it from ruin. This essay argues that attentive foraging practices challenge the idea that humans can transcend habitat limitations by revealing that the climatic stability of the Holocene is the condition that enables human agency in habitat manipulation.
Mushroom Foraging
Foraging requires knowledge of fungi, plant and tree species and an understanding of habitats. Wild garlic doesn’t grow in the meadow or in young plantations; it is a habitat indicator for mature, mixed woodland. A forager knows this, and you won’t find them looking for a species in the wrong habitat. I teach mushroom foraging, and I often say to my groups, Don’t look for the mushroom, look for the habitat. Without the habitat, the species sought will not be present.
Different trees create different habitats: beech woods have wide but shallow roots, and the forest floor is dry. By contrast, Oak is deep-rooted. Alder likes water; the old coppicers of Lancashire say that they “like to have their toes in the water” (Woodland Trust, 2020). Plants form the understory and give life to the forest floor; sweet woodruff, wood sorrel and ground ivy indicate a well-established woodland (Schmidt et al., 2014; Woodland Trust, 2016). Fungi provide a network to weave organic systems together and are “useful indicators of species richness” (Norden et al., 2007, p. 397). Many edible fungi are ectomycorrhizal, which improves the uptake of nutrients to the trees (Stuart and Krista, 2020). Saprotrophic fungi break down lignin in the cell walls of dead plants and trees (Hatakka, 1994). Parasitic fungi are the gardener of the woods; they make room for new growth and regeneration and keep the woodland alive (Robinson, 2025). Fungi 'significantly correlate' with biodiversity (Jonson and Johnsell, 1999).
A forager uses their senses to tune in to the woodland. Familiarity with birdsong, the feel of the ground, the temperature and the moisture in the air, and the species that are present all become a radar; this is habitat literacy. The age and maturity of a forest cannot be judged by the size of the trees; it is the biodiversity that provides that information. Donna Haraway argues that this type of knowledge is “webbed connections” learned through embodied engagement with the world (Haraway, 1988, p585). An experienced forager can walk in a woodland in spring and know whether it is worth a visit in autumn for the autumnal fungi. This kind of habitat literacy is learned through embodied engagement rather than simple observation. Haraway proposes a “practice of objectivity that privileges contestation, deconstruction, passionate construction… and hope for transformation of systems of knowledge and ways of seeing.” (Haraway, 1988, p. 585). Therefore, it is more than habitat literacy; it is a form of ecological literacy. Meadow species need pastureland that has escaped industrial fertilisers for the past 50 years to grow good, prized edible fungi species. However, mature pastureland will never host the prized porcini unless there is a suitable tree to host it.
Furthermore, oak, beech, birch and pine are the most common hosts, and if these trees are present in a young woodland, again, seeking them out is futile. They only appear in mature or ancient woodland, not recent plantations. A forage in an old, mature, biodiverse woodland is exciting for a forager, not just because of the promise of a haul for their basket, but because it is joyous to walk in a place of such vibrancy and life. It may be an essay writer’s dream to be published, but maybe not this one; a forager’s secret locations are not for general publication. “To walk attentively through a forest, even a damaged one, is to be caught by the abundance of life” (Tsing, p. 144).
The woodlands at Rivington are not ancient. They were planted just over a century ago, and a woodland is considered to be ancient if it has had continuous, uninterrupted growth since 1600 (Robinson, 2025). However, as any visiting forager can testify, it is mature enough to be engaging. There is species diversity here; the habitat is mature. Man-made to begin with, but in the century between its creation and the present day, along with the abandonment period where nature was left to take its course, it has become diverse, and the porcini mycelium moved in and became established. This is where foraging differs from extractive or managerial approaches to woodland maintenance; the forager’s attentiveness reveals the interrelated structure of a habitat. “We come to know and enact a world from inhabiting it” (Anderson and Harrison, 2010, p. 9).
Rivington's landscape provides and demonstrates a rich ecology and biodiverse habitat. Just out of the woods is mature pastureland that hosts the ballerina waxcap, rare outside the north-west of England but locally abundant here. On the hills above the woods is moorland that is well known amongst some single species focused mushroom pickers; the ones of the magical variety, Psilocybe semilanceata. Each of these species needs the correct habitat to thrive; they cannot thrive outside that place. Complex habitats require relatively stable environments to enable a thriving ecology (Loke and Chisholm, 2022), and these conditions are naturally, not artificially, produced.
Holocene as a habitat
Foraging makes visible the conditions that create and sustain the ecology of a habitat. A broader question can be asked about the environmental factors that have underpinned and supported the global spread of humans and human habitat manipulation. The diversity of forest ecology and the presence of mature networks of mycelium depend on uninterrupted ecological conditions, and this is dependent on stable climatic conditions over extended time periods. If local habitats require this sort of stability, then the planetary condition that has enabled the global scale of human habitat transformation that has accompanied their expansion may be questioned. Chakrabarty (2009) argues that the stability of the Holocene epoch, a period of relative temperature and atmospheric condition predictability over the last 11,700 years, has allowed for the formation of complex human civilisation. He states that “we cannot afford to destabilise conditions… that work like boundary parameters of human existence” (Chakrabarty, 2009, p. 218). Understanding this allows the perspective that the apparent ability of humans to create landscapes, like those at Rivington, is an achievement based on stable environmental conditions rather than having ecological independence.
During the Holocene epoch, the Earth’s climate has been stable with predictable seasons and weather patterns, which have enabled the development of agriculture, permanent human settlements and complex societies (Feynman and Ruzmaikin, 2007). Chakrabarty suggests that this stability has provided the environmental conditions that have enabled human societies to reshape landscapes on a large scale: “It was not just an expression of human inventiveness. It was made possible by … a certain stability of the climate” (Chakrabarty, 2009, p. 218). The human capacity for habitat manipulation can be seen to be made possible by climatic stability rather than an ability to transcend environments. Therefore, a question to consider may be “How can I help to create the conditions under which the world that I want to see becomes possible?” (Berners-Lee, 2021, p. xv).
Human habitat creation and modification can therefore be understood to be dependent on the stability of the environmental conditions of the Holocene. Predictable patterns of seasons and climate underpin the growth of agriculture and permanent settlements, as well as large-scale landscape engineering. Projects such as Rivington Terraced Gardens, which showcase how extensively humans can alter environments, are the result of these enabling conditions. The creation of the gardens and transformation of the hillside was enabled by the long-term stability of environmental conditions; this is the necessary basis for the landscape to thrive, survive and become established. This perspective allows us to see human agency in habitat transformation as being enabled by the Holocene conditions rather than as mastery over nature, and recognising the stability of the Holocene as the enabling condition of human development reframes human agency in habitat creation.
This perspective places the focus of human habitat manipulation on reliance on climatic stability as opposed to transcending environmental boundaries. Foraging makes this visible and offers insights into the complexity of forest ecology and biodiversity that supports the continuation of successful habitats, and offers the potential to identify the trajectory of climate change (Hof et al., 2012). Foraging practice highlights a reliance on a stable climate and ecology that is beyond human mastery over nature. With this, Holocene stability can be understood as more than a background picture of human development but also as an essential requirement for the continued change needed for human societies. Understanding the history of humans and their integration with nature suggests opportunities for sustaining a beneficial reconnection to nature or being instrumental in its collapse (Costana et al., 2007)
Rethinking Human Habitat Manipulation
The human ability to manipulate habitats to suit their needs is widely considered to be a measure of success and mastery over nature, and this adaptability enables habitation in a wide range of environments. Even commonplace, casual creation of artificial habitats for aesthetic purposes can be seen in many bathrooms across temperate regions, where plants that can only thrive in tropical rainforests are kept for ornamental decoration. Habitat manipulation assumes that we have control over nature, and if the environment changes, it is assumed that a technological solution will be available to respond. Foraging challenges this idea by revealing the limits of such control over nature. The hillside transformation that we see on Rivington Pike may look like human mastery over nature, but the habitats that are explored when foraging reveal how much the ecology relies on complex systems that cannot be fully engineered. Porcini, russula and lactarius species, chicken of the woods, birch polypore; the species count on forages in the autumn season often reaches 20, 30 and more. The presence of this rich network of fungal mycelium, combined with forest succession and regeneration and species diversity, all emerge through ecological processes over a long period of time; this is beyond the scope of the human landscaping design of the garden’s architect and engineers. Foraging nurtures an understanding of habitats as a rich tapestry of species diversity and interaction that can enable, but also limit, human manipulation. A habitat is not simply a setting for human agency; it is a place of interspecies relationships where understanding emerges through connections and “hope(s) for transformation of knowledge and ways of seeing” (Haraway, 1988, p. 585).
Over time, a forager learns to rethink human agency as being independent of ecological systems. All species, including humans, can be seen as part of wider, complex environmental conditions, “a species dependent on other species for its own existence” (Chakrabarty, 2009, p. 219). While the local ecology can be destroyed or initial creation stages established, humans are still dependent on the wider conditions of a stable climate to enact agency over their habitat (Simonson et al., 2021). Foraging is an embodied activity that teaches us how to relate to our surroundings, revealing the reliance, fragility and temporality of human dependence on conditions beyond our control.
A trip around Rivington Terraced Gardens provides an understanding of the alterations to the landscape and environment. Rivington Heritage Trust recognises that ecological systems cannot simply be reinstated as they previously were and instead makes restoration their goal rather than renovation. As Kimmerer notes, “restoration offers concrete means by which humans can once again enter into positive, creative relationship with the more- than- human world” (Kimmerer, 2013, p. 328). Change is gently managed through succession and partial repair. The gardens display an exciting mix of human endeavour and habitat manipulation whilst presenting a collaboration with natural ecological processes. Kimmerer discusses this process as highly rewarding: “Here is where our most challenging and most rewarding work lies, in restoring a relationship of respect, responsibility, and reciprocity. And love.” (Kimmerer, 2013, p. 338). Thus, human agency is not about mastery over nature, and Rivington Terraced Gardens showcase how human vision can be beautifully embedded in the canvas of natural ecological habitats.
In summary, the practice of attentive engagement with ecology through the activity of foraging at Rivington Terraced Gardens reveals that landscaping and human manipulation of habitats act within wider ecological constraints over a long period of time, rather than exceeding them. The scale of the landscaping masterpiece that was Morson’s creation at this site is dependent on environmental conditions that have enabled human activity during the Holocene stability. The environmental changes emerging from human-influenced climate change associated with the Anthropocene destabilise the conditions that have enabled these activities. If the conditions that have supported human habitat manipulation are called into question, human agency in manipulating their surroundings must be reconsidered as fragile and dependent on the long-term continuation of complex ecological systems rather than as mastery over nature.
Conclusion
Foraging as a relational, embodied practice teaches the practitioner a different way of understanding human intervention and habitat manipulation. A sustained ecology enables biodiversity, and the species indicators of ancient woodland, along with fungal networks, only appear with extended periods of forest maturity. Nature lovers learn that every species has its niche, skills and abilities that make it suitable for the role it plays in the ecology, and it is easy to think of humans’ special skill being that they are habitat manipulators extraordinaire and independent from ecological constraints. It seems that a human, given the time and financial resources, can create habitats of their choosing wherever and whenever they like. But widen the scope and look beyond the immediate habitat to ask what a human habitat really is, and it becomes apparent that the relational ecological interactions of global climate stability facilitate human agency in habitat creation.
The historical appearance of agriculture, increased populations and permanent settlements all coincide with the beginning of the Holocene epoch. It is this that provides and limits the extent to which human agency can flourish. It is part of a larger system of climatic conditions. Whilst we can influence local change, we are also subject to the wider ecological conditions. Evidence of habitat manipulation and ecological dependence is woven throughout Rivington Terraced Gardens, with natural woodland succession and human regeneration made visible, giving insight into the global condition of human agency. Therefore, we must recognise our dependence on global ecology and climatic stability to prepare for the potential of the Anthropocene period and conditions that it may bring. Foraging is about connecting and relational understanding of habitats, enabling reconsideration of constraints, but also our possibilities as habitat manipulators.
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