New Facilities Afan Forest Park

With swooping singletracks through beautiful forests and exposed rocky doubletracks on wide open hills, Afan Forest Park, near Neath in South Wales, is home to a mountain bike experience second to none. Now, mountain bikers can get even more from their visit thanks to a new leaflet published by Forestry Commission Wales which manages the forest park. The leaflet includes information on local facilities, such as where to eat and drink and camp sites, along with new photos of the trails and maps that have been updated to provide more information than ever before. The new maps highlight the shortcuts on the long Skyline trail, with the lengths given in kilometres. The forest roads that link tracks and allow riders to navigate between singletrack sections are also marked on the maps. The new leaflet can be picked up on arrival at Afan Forest Park Visitor Centre and Glyncorrwg Mountain Bike Centre or it can be downloaded from Forestry Commission Wales's website or from www.mbwales.com. Afan Forest Park is one of several sites in South Wales where Japanese larch trees have been infected by Phytophthora ramorum (P. ramorum), a fungus-like pathogen that kills many of the trees that it infects. Infected Japanese larch trees produce high numbers of the spores that spread the disease with the result that a lot of these trees can become infected very quickly. The spores can cling to soil or plant debris and, as winter approaches and the tracks get muddier, Mountain Bike Ranger, Carl Denham, is urging all visitors to Afan to follow the simple biosecurity measures that are in place to try to limit the extent of the outbreak. Mountain bikes should be washed down after using Afan's tracks and, to encourage riders to do so, the bike wash facilities at the Visitor Centre and at Glyncorrwg Mountain Bike Centre can now be used free of charge. Carl said, "The support of the mountain bike community is vital to contain the spread of P. ramorum and I urge all riders to take advantage of the free facilities to wash their bikes before going home. "We are also asking riders to keep to the trails and to wash their clothing between visits to forests so that they don't inadvertently spread this fatal tree disease." Forestry Commission Wales is felling Japanese larch trees infected by P. ramorum in the Penhydd area of Afan Forest Park between now and March 2011 to limit the production of the spores that spread the infection and therefore minimise the impact of the outbreak. The Penhydd Trail had already closed in April for forestry operations to take place but, since then, the area of woodland that the trail passes through has become one of the worst affected so far by the P. ramorum outbreak and it remains closed while the felling takes place. The other mountain bike trails at Afan Forest Park are open but access to sections of these routes may need to be limited at times and diversions put in place while these essential forestry operations are underway. Carl said, "We are working hard to minimise the impact of this serious disease on our woodlands and we hope that mountain bikers will understand why sections of the trails may need to be closed and diversions put in place at times." P. ramorum was first discovered on Japanese larch trees in Great Britain in 2009 in South West England. It was then found on larch in South Wales in June 2010. Further information about P. ramorum can be found on the Forestry Commission's website at www.forestry.gov.uk/pramorum