Correspondence

eAlert: 9 February 2021 - Updated Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant

Published 10 February 2021

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

1. 09 February 2021

Updated Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant is available from today - also find out about the other updates to Countryside Stewardship for 2021. Find out why Felling Licences are changing, and make sure you know the volume of trees you are permitted to fell under your thinning licence.

2. Updated Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant opens today

Apply for support to create a woodland, followed by a maintenance element to maintain it.

An updated Countryside Stewardship: Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant (WCM) will be open from today, 9 February 2021. The rates of the grants are not affected but the application process has been refreshed.

Woodland creation (from the woodland capital grant) and woodland maintenance offer have been merged to form the Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant.

If you are seeking to create new woodland through Countryside Stewardship in 2021/22 onwards please apply for the Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant, full details including new manuals and application forms are available on the GOV.UK Countryside Stewardship: how to apply page under Woodland support.

For applicants thinking of applying for the Higher Tier Woodland Improvement (WD2 and associated capital items) grant, for either Mixed or Woodland Only applications, please note:

• the deadline for requesting a Higher Tier application pack is 31 March 2021
• the initial deadline for application submission is 30 April 2021
• the deadline for finalising applications is 31 August 2021

3. Further updates to Countryside Stewardship

Find out how the Countryside Stewardship 2021 updates may impact on woodland.

Updates to Countryside Stewardship are available from today (9 February 2021).

The main changes regarding woodland include:

• Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant - the amalgamation of woodland creation (through woodland capital grant) and woodland maintenance offer to join the creation of woodland and 10-year woodland maintenance grant
• new capital items have been added: Deer Pedestrian Gate (FG16) & Deer Vehicle Gate (FG17) will be added to Woodland Tree Health (WTH) and Woodland Creation and Maintenance grants (WCM)
• Woodland Tree Health applicants will be able to include the following Capital options - Stone Wall Restoration (BN12), Stone Wall Top Wiring (BN13) and Stone Wall Supplement (BN14), Deer High Seat (FY1) and Temporary Deer Fencing (FG10)
• applicants for Woodland Creation and Maintenance grants will be able to include the following Capital options - Stone Wall Restoration (BN12) and Stone Wall Supplement (BN14)

Please note that there are revised manuals for the following grants:

• Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant
• Woodland tree health grant
• Woodland management plan grant

Customers should now request annexes via email from the RPA (details on how to do this is in the manuals) or by calling the RPA on 03000 200 301.

4. EU Timber Regulations and England’s felling licences

The Timber and Timber Products (Placing on the Market) Regulations (UKTR) and UK FLEGT Regulations apply in Great Britain from 1 January 2021.

Felling licences for cutting down trees in England are changing. The approved felling licence document will no longer include a due diligence pro-forma for UKTR. However, felling licences will continue to play an important role in the timber supply chains, demonstrating that timber harvested in England is legally sourced.

Operators involved in felling trees must not place illegally harvested timber on the GB market and must use a due diligence system to gather information on timber, including its species, quantity, supplier, country of harvest and compliance with applicable legislation. Traders must continue to keep records of who they buy timber or timber products from, and any traders they sell them to.

A due diligence checklist template is provided by the Office of Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). It indicates the information that operators need to record to demonstrate compliance. Please find the checklist template and other information on the GOV.UK page Regulations: timber and FLEGT licences.

5. About your thinning licence…

Did you know felling more than the number of trees or the timber volume stated in a felling licence may result in enforcement action?

A felling licence for thinning woodland gives permission to the licensee to fell growing trees within a woodland or any larger sized group of trees. Thinning is a forestry operation usually carried out in 5-year intervals for conifer and 10-year intervals for broadleaf. The purpose of thinning is to remove some trees to make space for the remaining trees to grow on and may include removal of poor form or damaged trees.

Felling licences for thinning operations do not include a condition to restock, on the understanding that the volume or number of trees to be removed is limited so as not to create excessive gaps in the canopy that may require restocking. To ensure thinning operations do not require subsequent restocking, our guidance is that the felling operation must not exceed 30% removal of the canopy or 30% of the stand volume, evenly distributed across the stand, so to allow the canopy to close before the next intervention. If you fell over 30% of the canopy or volume, then you may be in breach of the Forestry Act.

Prior to felling, if you find you need to fell more than 30% of the canopy or total volume of the stand, for example, due to a tree health issue, then you should consider applying for an alternative felling operation type, such as clear fell or regeneration felling; this licence will contain conditions for replanting or regeneration to ensure that woodland cover is maintained for future generations.

Please contact your local woodland officer for advice or further information.