What is it? A recreation centre owned by the Forestry Commission whose aim is to show that “there’s more to forestry than forests”… the guy from the FC told me: “studies show trees have health and well-being benefits – people prefer them to indoor gyms”.

Nant yr Arian is on the site of old lead and silver mine (nany yr arian means ‘silver river’), there’s a visitor centre, lake (where they feed kites – whose numbers they have helped restore), and lots of mountain trails for walking, birdwatching, orienteering, mountain biking, a small adventure playground and nature trails for children.

Summary: The Red Kite conservation is impressive (they have helped restore numbers of kites – 20 years ago they were down to two pairs in Mid-Wales, now thanks to their feeding programme there are now over 80) and the other major plus point is the sensitive way they have restored the land - you’d hardly know it was a former mine.

It’s a lovely setting – the visitor centre overlooks a large lake surrounded by forest. The mountain biking trails are designed so that they’re not in the way of the walking trails and away from the lake where the kite feeing takes place so, again, you’d hardly know they existed – surprising given that a sixth of the 120,000 visitors come for the biking.

I walked for several hours on the path that circuits the centre and hardly saw a soul – it was a sunny Sunday and there were lots of cars in the car park – but most had come for biking.

According to the guy from the Forestry Commission it’s not their most eco-friendly visitor centre (I got the feeling he’d much preferred one of their others, e.g. Coed y Brenin, to have been nominated!) but it did have quite a few features – such as a sedum roof collecting rainwater and woodchip burner heats the building. The only access is by car or a very long walk over the mountains.

The centre won an award for sustainable waste management in the public sector – Arena Network Green Dragon Wales Business and Sustainability Awards 2006.

Enviromental credentials: Locally or regionally occurring natural materials (for example, local stone): mostly made from locally sourced timber – European larch for outside cladding, red cedar for paving, douglas fir for uprights, local ash for flooring. Recycled paper for insulation.

Natural (plant-based, non-petrochemical) cleaning products used; bathroom soap organic, low energy lighting systems, biomass boiler uses surpus timber from the forest and provides heating and hot water; mains-supplied energy from a renewable energy supplier - Scottish Power green tariff.

They say 75 per cent of waste produced from site is recycled. Shredded paper and grass cuttings composted. They’re not allowed to compost cooked waste; rainwater catchment from sedum roof filtered and used for toilets and bike wash – for mountain bikes.

Conservation and wildlife: They have helped restore numbers of kites – 20 years ago they were down to two pairs in mid-wales, now thanks to their feeding programme there are now over 80. Winter talks programme, events for kids, organise a daily feed the kite display.

NOMINATED BY: I'd like to nominate the Bwlch Nant yr Arian woodland park in Ceredigion, mid-Wales. Even the views from the car park are stunning! The centre has both paths and cycle trails for all abilities and there are daily feeds of wild red kite, which are found in very few other places in Britain. You can hear them before you see them, and then, suddenly, there are dozens of wheeling birds above you.

The visitor centre itself uses wood chips as fuel - a by-product of felling by the Forestry Commission, who run the centre. The roof of the centre is also green, literally and metaphorically - it's covered in sedums which collect and filter rainwater, which is used in the loos! Oh, and there's a great playground for my rampaging children - Zoe Ashpole, Manchester

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