The Irati Forest ( French: Forêt d'Iraty; French pronunciation: [fɔʁɛ diʁati]; Spanish: Selva de Irati; Basque: Iratiko oihana), found in the western Pyrenees, covers 17,300 ha (43,000 acres) of the Navarre region, astride on the Soule ( Larrau) and Basse-Navarre ( Mendive and Lecumberry) provinces (France) and Navarre (Spain), framed by Mount Okabe (1,466 m) and Pic d'Orhy (2,017 m). It is the second largest and best preserved mixed beech-fir forest in Europe. [1]
Located in a scarcely populated area, it has maintained a wild and mysterious aspect, fueled by many local legends.
The access route was only built in 1964.
Its name comes from the Irati river, which crops up from the meeting of the Urtxuria and Urbeltza. [2]
For the most part, the Irati Forest shares the flora and fauna of the Pyrenees. Birds found in the area include
goldcrests,
chaffinches,
robins,
black woodpeckers, and
white-backed woodpeckers.
[3] Notable mammals include
foxes,
wild boar,
martens, and
roe deer. Smaller mammals include the red
vole, gray
dormouse, and
shrew, as well as the
polecat and
badger.
The primary tree species are
beech and
silver fir
[4].The forest is also home to
linden,
hazelnut,
elm,
willow,
maple,
boxwood, and
juniper trees, and rarely
yew. Other plants are
ferns,
lichens,
moss, and
sloe, and well as rare herbaceous plants such as
narcissus and
winter bell. Solitary
oaks, which used to be more common in the region, are still found in the area.
Despite being an intervened forest, it maintains a high degree of maturity, with a high diversity of environments that encompasses forests, wetlands, montane and subalpine meadows of the cervico (
Nardus stricta), rocky, moor and scrubland, the Atlantic heaths with blueberry and argoma (
Ulex gallii) or
gorse (
Genista hispanica subsp. occidentalis).
[5]
The Irati Forest ( French: Forêt d'Iraty; French pronunciation: [fɔʁɛ diʁati]; Spanish: Selva de Irati; Basque: Iratiko oihana), found in the western Pyrenees, covers 17,300 ha (43,000 acres) of the Navarre region, astride on the Soule ( Larrau) and Basse-Navarre ( Mendive and Lecumberry) provinces (France) and Navarre (Spain), framed by Mount Okabe (1,466 m) and Pic d'Orhy (2,017 m). It is the second largest and best preserved mixed beech-fir forest in Europe. [1]
Located in a scarcely populated area, it has maintained a wild and mysterious aspect, fueled by many local legends.
The access route was only built in 1964.
Its name comes from the Irati river, which crops up from the meeting of the Urtxuria and Urbeltza. [2]
For the most part, the Irati Forest shares the flora and fauna of the Pyrenees. Birds found in the area include
goldcrests,
chaffinches,
robins,
black woodpeckers, and
white-backed woodpeckers.
[3] Notable mammals include
foxes,
wild boar,
martens, and
roe deer. Smaller mammals include the red
vole, gray
dormouse, and
shrew, as well as the
polecat and
badger.
The primary tree species are
beech and
silver fir
[4].The forest is also home to
linden,
hazelnut,
elm,
willow,
maple,
boxwood, and
juniper trees, and rarely
yew. Other plants are
ferns,
lichens,
moss, and
sloe, and well as rare herbaceous plants such as
narcissus and
winter bell. Solitary
oaks, which used to be more common in the region, are still found in the area.
Despite being an intervened forest, it maintains a high degree of maturity, with a high diversity of environments that encompasses forests, wetlands, montane and subalpine meadows of the cervico (
Nardus stricta), rocky, moor and scrubland, the Atlantic heaths with blueberry and argoma (
Ulex gallii) or
gorse (
Genista hispanica subsp. occidentalis).
[5]