Correspondence

eAlert: 28 September 2021 - Updates to forestry Environmental Impact Assessments

Published 28 September 2021

Applies to England

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

1. Our forestry Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) have changed

1.1 We’ve introduced new forms and clearer guidance to make EIA easier for everyone.

Lots of people find EIA challenging. To help applicants make better applications to the Forestry Commission, we’ve changed the format of our forestry EIA forms and provided clearer guidance to help you through the process.

We’ve also clarified when you can proceed without the need to submit an EIA application. The EIA process is compliant with the UK Forestry Standard, and compatible with your Woodland Creation Planning Grant.

1.2 Who is this for?

The new forms can be used by anyone who is looking to apply for a non-grant funded EIA.

If you are planning to apply to the Forestry Commission (FC) for a non-grant funded EIA, the new forms can be found on GOV.UK.

The FC will continue to accept old format forms for 6 months (until 31 March 2022).

If you have already applied for an EIA, or are applying for an EIA through a FC administered woodland creation grant scheme, these changes won’t affect you.

1.3 What have we changed?

The EIA regulations have not changed, what’s different are our application forms and guidance.

The EIA application forms have been improved to help applicants make better applications and receive faster decisions from the FC. The new forms will help you demonstrate exactly how your proposal presents good forestry practice and how it complies with the UKFS.

Importantly, not every proposal needs to submit a forestry EIA, so we’ve updated our guidance to make it clear that you don’t always need to apply.

What’s more, the new EIA forms are now compatible with the Woodland Creation Planning Grant; if you have an approved stage 2 Woodland Creation Planning Grant plan it is now much easier to apply for a non-grant funded afforestation EIA.

1.4 What help is out there?

We’ve also improved our EIA guidance.

The forestry EIA home page on GOV.UK helps you decide whether you need to apply for a forestry EIA, and tells you everything you need to know about applying.

Each EIA application form now comes with accompanying guidance, providing you with a question-by-question guide for those environmental issues you may not be familiar with.

1.5 Need more help on EIA?

We’ve also introduced two support pages to help you make sure you’ve considered key environmental constraints on your land before you apply to the FC:

• Forestry Project Checks: all projects is a handy checklist of actions for all forestry project proposers.
• Forestry Project Checks: constraints helps you interpret constraints on your land that you find using Land Information Search on the FC Map Browser, or other map browsers.

You can also contact your local Woodland Officer for more information.

Find out more about forestry Environmental Impact Assessment

2. Updates to the Forestry Commission Map Browser and Land Information Search

2.1 The Forestry Commission is making improvements to the map browser and Land Information Search (LIS) which enable users to view spatial data layers published by the Forestry Commission.

Users are able to see how these data layers interact with areas of land in which they have an interest, and can identify various agreements for forestry and woodland management activity that has been approved.

The map browser and LIS were launched in their current form in December 2018. In 2021, the Forestry Commission launched the first of a series of developments to give users access to better information about land in England. A total of 54 new data layers have been added to the map browser, and the LIS tool has been reconfigured to make it easier to interpret, as well as providing more detailed scoring information for the different grants on offer.

The Forestry Commission works with other organisations to ensure that we are able to access the most up-to-date and relevant data to aid woodland creation. Further developments to improve the user experience are ongoing, and will be launched in the coming months.

The updates to the external map browser and LIS are expected to go live on Friday 1st October. On this day, the map browser and LIS will be unavailable between 08:00 and 18:00

3. Woodlands for Water launches

3.1 Project to support landowners and farmers to plant trees along riverbanks and water courses.

‘Woodlands for Water’ aims to create 3,150 hectares of trees in six river catchment areas from Devon to Cumbria by March 2025.

Farmers and landowners will be able to apply for funding through the England Woodland Creation Offer grant scheme.

There are 242,262km of watercourses in England, and it is hoped that by planting trees in this way they will contribute to a natural network of habitats across the country as part of our plans to expand, improve and connect these places across our towns, cities and countryside.

Find out more about Woodlands for Water

4. The Northern Forest has been awarded £14.8 million from the Nature for Climate Fund

4.1 This funding from the Nature for Climate Fund will support over 1 million trees to be planted in the north of England over the next year.

The Northern Forest has already established over 3 million new trees since 2018 and is transforming the landscape from coast to coast and in and around cities such as Liverpool, Chester, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, York and Hull.

Find out more about the Northern Forest and funding opportunities for woodland creation on their website.