Уэльстің Сноудония ұлттық саябағындағы Гвидир орманı

Forest in Snowdonia National Park, Wales

Gwydir Forest, also spelled Gwydyr, is located in Conwy county borough and the Snowdonia National Park in Wales. It takes its name from the ancient Gwydir Estate, established by the John Wynn family of Gwydir Castle, which owned this area. Natural Resources Wales uses the alternative spelling (i. e. Gwydyr Forest, Coedwig Gwydyr). Certainly as early as 1536, Leland wrote: "Gwydir lieth two bowshots above the River Conwy. It is a pretty place."

Following the Forestry Act of 1919, Gwydir Forest was established by the Forestry Commission in 1921, after much of the land was acquired from Lord Ancaster, whose family had inherited the Wynn estate. The First World War had highlighted a shortage in wood production, and left the area with little natural woodland. Many of the early planters and forestry workers had no experience of forestry, being formerly employed in the forest's mines, and many anecdotes from this era can be found in the book Tales from the Gwydyr Woods. Millions of seedlings were grown in the Diosgydd nursery, and the first areas planted were those that previously had some coverage. Most of the original plantations have now been felled and replanted as part of the forestry cycle. The majority of the forest is conifer (Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, Japanese larch, Norway spruce and Scots pine), relatively suited to the area's poor, shallow soils, but recent years have seen the increased planting of native broadleaf species such as Welsh Oak, beech and ash. This has largely been done for aesthetic reasons, i. e. to produce variety and to reduce the hard lines produced by conifers. However, commercial reasons will always dictate the need for faster growing conifers. These have a plant harvest cycle of between 20 and 40 years (depending on type), whereas oak requires the best part of a century. The forest still gives direct employment to 75 people, and creates local work for many others. It is estimated that the forest is growing at a rate of 125 tons a day, and is naturally being harvested at much the same rate. At times rights of way in the forest may be closed or restricted where forestry work is being undertaken. This property was built by Sir John Wynn in 1604.

The land owned by Natural Resources Wales in Snowdonia National Park amounts to just over 12%, and of the four forest areas, the Gwydir Forest is probably the most popular based on visitor numbers. In 1937, Gwydir was designated a National Forest Park, and since 1993 the heartland of the forest has been accorded the special status of Forest Park. Promotion as an attraction has been an integral part of this designation. The forest is very accessible by wide tracks, old miners' paths, and long established forest walks, a number of which follow waymarked routes. This popularity has further increased in recent years after the construction of the Marin Trail (named after the mountain bike manufacturer), a competition standard mountain bike route, which is approximately long with of climbing in all. Whilst the forest has to be accessible to forest workers' vehicles (there are over 100 mile (161 km) of roads and tracks in the forest), it is not open to private vehicles except on designated Open Days. However, there are a number of forest car parks and most of these have picnic sites. The forest was used as a special stage in the 2013 Wales Rally GB.

The piles of rock waste on the former mine sites have proved to be ideal breeding grounds for rare plants, and have resulted in the designation of part of the forest as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). This very specialised group of plants are known as metallophytes, being found only around old metal workings. They are able to extract minerals from the rock that would kill other species. Principal species found on the Gwydir mine sites are pennycress and forked spleenwort. The capping of the mine shafts for safety reasons has resulted in an ideal environment for bats, and the designation of a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). In February 2001, a lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) was found hibernating in a disused mine in the forest, the furthest north in the UK that this species had been found. The bat had been ringed as a juvenile in 1999 in the Forest of Dean. Despite a lack of photographic evidence, there have been over 100 reported sightings of pine martens in north Wales in the last decade, and pine marten DNA was recovered from a dropping found in Gwydir Forest in 1996.