McHughs Forest Park

McHughs Forest Park is a 43 hectare public recreational reserve on the edge of Darfield town in the Selwyn District of the South Island of New Zealand.

It was established in 1893 as a plantation forest for timber and shelter, dominated by Douglas fir but with a mix of other exotic conifers.

[1] McHughs Forest Park was formerly part of the Selwyn Plantation Board’s forest holdings and is now owned by the Selwyn District Council and publicly accessible with a diversity of walking tracks.

[1] In 1986 Dereck Rooney described McHughs Forest as "the third-best Douglas fir stand in New Zealand".

[3] Members of the Canterbury Botanical Society recorded 18 ferns inside McHughs Plantation in 1986, 17 of them indigenous to New Zealand.