Woodland Management
Golygfa Gwydyr manage around 15 hectares of the Gwydir Forest. The site is at around 300m in the High Parc area and is exposed to both southerly and northerly winds.
The Gwydir Forest was an extensive native mixed deciduous woodland intermingled with peat bog. In 1919 the Forestry Act resulted in the formation of Forestry Commission Wales and the purchase of much of the land within Gwydir. This land was drained and planted with conifers as a commercial crop. There is open access to the whole site under the Countryside Rights of Way Act, a public footpath that runs north to south through the site, the Gwydir Trail (mountain bike trail) runs along the eastern boundary of the site and there are several marked and unmarked paths throughout the site.
In 2005 Golygfa Gwydyr entered a Community Management Agreement with Natural Resources Wales which enables community management of our forest site. Our aims for the site include:
- Improve access to and within the site for community use.
- Utilise the site and its timber as a community resource.
- Restore tree cover to native deciduous.
- Improve habitat and biodiversity.
- Adopt Natural Flood Measures where feasible.
To achieve this Golygfa Gwydyr has three woodland officer posts who are trained as certificated chainsaw operators, first aiders, and other forestry operations such as chipping. We own a forestry tractor with a mechanical winch, which enables us to manage large trees, a log splitter and trailers.
Forestry management and operation are reviewed quarterly by NRW. Since November 2021 we have experienced two dramatic storms (Arwen and Darragh) which have caused serious damage to the tree cover on site. As a result, we are now developing a new Forest Management Plan looking long-term into how we need to manage the site with both climate change and community needs as major drivers. When finalised the forest management plan will be available here.
