Liking a lichen.

Tomorrow I am attending a lichen identification workshop run by Beds, Cambs and Northants Wildlife Trust. Lichens are not a group I have paid much attention to in the past, as I find them way too confusing to identify.
In Bedfordshire, we are seeing a bit of a lichen recovery at present due to changes in the brick making industry. Bedfordshire has a long tradition of brick making and, at its height, Stewartby brickworks was home to the world's biggest kiln with over 2,000 people working at the plant producing 500 million bricks a year. This meant that there were 23 kiln chimneys belching out SO2 into the atmosphere, much like the chimneys that were staged in the olympic opening ceremony. However, in 2005, the Hanson Company invested £1million to reduce the SO2 emissions to comply with EU legislation. There are now only 4 chimneys (listed buildings) and filtering methods to clean the emissions.
With cleaner air, and the persistent rain of the last 12 months, we are seeing less tolerant, more feathery, lichens growing once again.