DRUG users, poachers and racing motorcyclists are destroying a popular woodland area, police warned yesterday.

Officers are stepping up patrols in Guisborough Woods after an "alarming rise" in the use of air rifles and reports of motorbike riders using forest walkways as race tracks.

They are also concerned about an increase in badger and fox baiting and fires being started deliberately in the woods.

Chief Superintendent John Kelly, head of Langbaurgh police, said the woods were becoming a hot-spot for anti-social and illegal behaviour.

"The woodland is there for everyone to enjoy, but poachers seeking out venison and rabbits, trespassers spoiling the natural vegetation and drug users blighting the area are becoming a constant nuisance," he said.

Simon Hough, recreation ranger for the Forestry Commission, said visitors to the 450-hectare woods - the only urban fringe forest in the whole of the North York Moors - could be injured by poachers or motorcyclists.

"There has been an alarming rise in illegal firearms and motorbikes being used in the forest and I am concerned that someone is going to get very seriously hurt," he said.

"On a summer Sunday or bank holiday there are probably more people in Guisborough Forest than Guisborough town centre."

Ward councillor Graham Jeffrey said the over past six months it seemed to have become "open season" for crimes involving wildlife in the woods.

"This includes the poaching of deer, hare, rabbit, pheasant and grouse and the digging of badgers and foxes," he said.

"Local gamekeepers and the farming community agree that poaching is at the top of its list as a major concern.

"Hare and deer seem to be being taken by individuals using firearms and dogs to run them down. This is fuelled by a market in game to unscrupulous butchers in the area."

The woods are popular with dog walkers and families.

One parent said: "I'm really concerned about this. Lots of people take their kids up on a weekend and the thought of people using air rifles up there is terrifying."