Llanfor and Celyn Forest Resource Plan
Location and setting
Llanfor and Celyn Forest Resource Plan (FRP) covers an area of 409 ha. This is split into the two main areas which are highly visible from Bala town and main trunk roads.
- Llanfor forest block which is located to the North East of the town of Bala along the A494 and is split its self into several smaller blocks; Coed Penmaen Mawr, Coed Bryn Banon, Coed Foel-Dryll and Coed Creigiau.
- Celyn forest block is located to the North West of Bala along the A4212 on the North side of Llyn Celyn reservoir.
The surrounding habitats consist of upland heath, farmland and other areas of woodland. Adjacent to Celyn is the Migneint-Arenig-Dduallt Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
Celyn is located within Snowdonia National Park.
Both Llanfor and Celyn FRP areas are located within Gwynedd County Council boundary.
Summary of objectives
The objectives below have been split into General which cover the whole forest block, followed by Celyn and Llanfor respectively with objectives specific to those sites only.
General
- Maintain Timber production, through increased Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) management (Coed Penmaen Mawr, Coed Foel Emoel)., some areas will remain as clearfell sites to support nightjar and due to the exposure and poor soil qualities.
- Improve species Diversity through restocking of cleared larch coupes with a broad species choice.
- Continue the Development of Riparian Areas, to improve or maintain ecological status of watercourses.
- Improve Forest road and track network access to allow thinning, CCF management, and larch removal.
- Develop thinning regime to make sure thinning is done on time, and to allow opportunities for CCF.
- Removal of older and diseased Larch with consideration of landscape and adjacent felling areas; younger (under 20 years old) larch will be left to grow until a valuable crop can be harvested.
- Maintenance of the landscape approach from the previous design plans, and that larch removal problems will be mitigated.
- Work towards Deadwood target levels.
- Conserve heritage and cultural features to maintain condition.
- Planning Deer Infrastructure, to allow deer management.
Celyn
- Forestry operations will be managed to limited disturbance of power lines, through careful coupe planning.
- Move towards mixed native Broadleaf Woodland in areas of Allt Y Gelli by removal of Sitka Spruce Regeneration.
- Continue to soften edges along roadside along Celyn.
- Continue to maintain a successional woodland buffer strip along the edges adjacent to Migneint-Arenig-Dduallt SAC, this will also help to soften the edges in regards to landscape as identified on the previous forest design plan.
Llanfor
- Continue to restore Ancient woodland areas through thinning of conifer forests (Coed Bryn Banon and Coed Foel Dryll).
- Some restoration of Plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS) will be through clearfell due to adjacency to a major highway, and due to larch removal.
- Rhododendron Management particularly in Ancient woodland sites and to time this in before larch removal, this is particularly important on Coed Bryn Banon.
- Re-establishment of Ancient Woodland through clearfell in Nurse Bryn Pader, leave young larch until age 20-25 if it isn’t infected with Phytophthora, to produce some value from the crop.
- Lake side to be managed primarily for ecological benefits and will be placed under Natural Reserve management.
- Maintain PROW to encourage more local recreational use.
Maps
Feedback
The consultation for this plan has now ended and the results will be published shortly, however, If you have any comments or feedback on Forest Resource Planning, you can contact the Forest Resource Planning team at frp@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk