Guidance
Standard cost items for EWCO
Updated 23 October 2025
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2025
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-the-england-woodland-creation-offer/standard-cost-items-for-ewco
This document describes the standard cost items that are available through the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO).
These items can be selected in the EWCO application form.
See the table for payment rates and item descriptions.
1. Planting
| Capital items for use in woodland creation | Payment rate | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Supply and plant tree | £1.72 per tree | To supply, plant and weed young trees and, where appropriate and stated in the woodland creation plan, protect them with a 0.6 metre spiral guard and cane. |
| Supplement for use of individual tree wraps | £1.23 per wrap | Individual tree protection unit, with a vertical slit, that expands as the tree grows, designed to be used with a cane. Available as 0.6m or 0.75m tree wrap, height specification to be agreed with woodland officer. Should last between 3 and 5 years (earlier replacement must be covered at the agreement holder’s expense). Use with a minimum of a 0.9 m cane of the 12/14lbs category. This supplement can be used for vine wraps for use with shrubs such as holly (or where extra space is required) and conifers. Plastic netting products marketed as tree wraps, as well as ‘eco’ wraps (short-lived economy wraps), are not eligible for funding. |
| Supplement for use of individual tree shelters | £2.43 per tree shelter | To protect young trees with a tree shelter (note that spirals are not eligible for this funding). The tree shelters will protect trees from grazing animals and the height of the animal determines which shelter to use. For example: - for roe, muntjac or Chinese water deer use 1.2 metre shelters - for fallow, red or sika deer use 1.8 metre shelters - for hares and rabbits use 1.2 metre shelters or smaller if available Shrub shelters of different heights can be used where the protection provided is deemed sufficient. For further details please see the Forestry Commission guidance on the use of tree shelters and guards. If you use this item, you must remove and dispose of the tree shelters in line with waste disposal regulations by the end of the EWCO Agreement’s Obligation Period. If using any purpose-built tree shelters made from biodegradable materials, we recommend that you seek assurance from the manufacturer or supplier that the shelter will remain serviceable for the recommended minimum 5-year period (or until the trees are established successfully). You must replace, at your own expense, any shelters that fail before this and the resultant dead trees. You can apply for up to 100 shelters per hectare for natural colonisation. |
| Scarification for natural colonisation | £121.85 per hectare | To create a suitable seed bed for natural colonisation, through exposure of mineral soil and reducing weed competition. |
| Mulch mats | £1.79 each | To suppress weed competition. Lay biodegradable mulch mat at least 50 cm x 50 cm, pegged down with five nonplastic pegs. We will support the use of mulch mat rolls as an alternative method. Pegs are to be collected and recycled or reused once the mulch mats have degraded. |
2. Boundary management
Boundary management capital items installed under a EWCO agreement should conform with the UK Forestry Standards (UKFS) Technical Guide: Forest Fencing and will be installed to ensure a secure perimeter around the planting.
| Capital items for use in woodland creation | Payment rate | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Stone wall top wiring or netting | £5.54 per metre | Where there is already a wall protecting a site, this item can be used to provide additional height for protection from deer or large mammals. |
| Dry stone wall repair | £31.91 per metre | To repair an existing stone wall that will help to control livestock and conserve traditional landscapes. |
| Post and wire fencing | £7.92 per metre | To erect a post and wire fence to control stock, to help habitat management, or to protect environmental features. The fence should be at least 1.05 metres high, use strands of galvanised 4 millimetres mild plain steel wire or 2.5mm barbed wire and use enough strands to control the livestock. Metal fence posts can be substituted for wooden fence posts where the Forestry Commission agrees this is necessary. The ‘Post and wire fencing’ standard cost can be used to contribute to the cost of installing post and rail fencing where the Forestry Commission agree this is necessary and where the applicant accepts that they will need to pay the difference in cost |
| Sheep netting | £9.34 per metre | Exclude sheep to protect the new woodland. Sheep netting should be steel wire mesh fence at least 1.05m high. Metal fence posts can be substituted for wooden fence posts where the Forestry Commission agrees this is necessary. |
| Deer fencing | £10.27 per metre | To protect newly created woodland from deer browsing. You should contact the Forestry Commission Deer Officer for your area to agree appropriate specifications for deer fencing. Where a deer fence is used, additional payments will not normally be available for tree shelters within the fenced area. Metal fence posts can be substituted for wooden fence posts where the Forestry Commission agrees this is necessary. |
| Rabbit netting supplement | £5.65 per metre | Eligible for use in conjunction with stock and deer fencing items only, or where these are already in place and will serve for the whole of the agreement period. To be used where additional fencing is required to exclude rabbits to help protect environmental features. Rabbit fencing should be standard 18-gauge netting, and the bottom edge should be buried to a depth of 150 mm, or else lap the netting on the surface of the ground towards the rabbit threat. |
| Difficult site fencing supplement | £3.98 per metre | Eligible for use with stock, deer and post and wire fencing items. To help control livestock, protect environmental features and help to manage habitats on difficult sites. A site is considered to be difficult if the terrain prevents a post knocker being transported to site. |
| Temporary electrical fencing | £6.38 per metre | To be used where there is existing low to moderate deer risk, but deer are considered to have an impact on leader growth, and where deer specific tree shelters are not being used. Note: in areas where hares and rabbits are present and pose an identified risk this item may not be suitable, without additional use of 70cm tree shelters. Specification and guidance should be in line with UKFS Technical Guide: Forest Fencing. |
| Strike markers | £0.93 per metre | To install fence markers to reduce the risk of black grouse mortality resulting from collision with fence wire. Fence markers are available in many forms, for example metal plates or chestnut palings. More details can be found in UKFS Technical Guide: Forest Fencing. |
| Badger gate | £61.81 per gate | To provide badgers with unrestricted access either side of a newly erected fence that crosses known badger routes. |
| Badger tubes | £58.49 | To be placed on existing badger runs where new fence lines are being erected, or where badgers are pushing through existing fence lines. Used as an alternative to traditional badger gates, particularly where muntjac are present. Note: badger tubes may not be appropriate in areas with high rabbit numbers. Specification: 225mm perforated twinwall pipe x 1.5m (4 cut from 1 x 6m pipe length) |
| Metal field gate | £340.00 per gate | To provide access to facilitate maintenance of the new woodland. Advice on the specification for such gates can be found in UKFS Technical Guide: Forest Fencing. |
| Wooden field gate | £612.00 per gate | To provide access to facilitate maintenance of the new woodland. Advice on the specification for such gates can be found in UKFS Technical Guide: Forest Fencing |
| Vehicle deer gate | £749.63 per gate | To install a deer proof vehicle gate within the deer fence. Advice on the specification for such gates can be found in UKFS Technical Guide: Forest Fencing. Where a deer fence is used, additional payments will not normally be available for tree shelters within the fenced area. |
| Pedestrian gate, bridle gate or kissing gate | £447.60 per gate | To facilitate access where there is an existing Public Right of Way or where permissive access is being provided. |
| Pedestrian deer gate | £475.44 per gate | To install a deer-proof pedestrian gate within the deer fence. Advice on the specification for such gates can be found in UKFS Technical Guide: Forest Fencing. |
| Water gates | £532.80 per gate | To install water gates across streams in areas targeted for the reduction of water pollution caused by farming. Available for use on fence lines across streams where other stock control items such as stock fencing are applied for. |
3. Deer management
| Capital items for use in woodland creation | Payment rate | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Deer exclosure plots | £212.56 each | To erect a deer exclosure plot at least 1.5 metres high and approximately 16 square metres in size, to protect areas of woodland from deer browsing. This will allow monitoring of the area’s regeneration potential and the impact of browsing. More details can be found UKFS Technical Guide: Forest Fencing. |
| Deer high seat (lean-to) | £265.00 each | To supply a galvanized, portable, lean-to deer high seat that provides a safe, temporary vantage point from which to cull deer, reducing the impact their browsing has on the land. |
| Deer high seat supplement (free-standing) | £180.00 each | To supplement the rate for a deer high seat when a freestanding seat is required. (This item can only be applied for in conjunction with a Deer High Seat (lean to), it cannot be applied for on its own without an accompanying Deer High Seat). |
| Shooting mounds | £250.00 each | To provide a permanent 360° viewing site for deer culling. The cost covers excavation work to create a mound three metres wide and two metres high. |
| Deer repellent | £0.27 per tree | To provide effective control for up to 6 months and ensure that young plantations have undisturbed growth from rubbing and/or debarking. To be applied to the shoots of stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. |
4. Vegetation management
| Capital items for use in woodland creation | Payment rate | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical bracken control | £270.90 per hectare | This item is for chemically controlling bracken, prior to planting, using a chemical product that is approved at its time of use, and to a specification agreed by the Forestry Commission. All herbicide applications (including aerial application) must follow the law and relevant codes of practice. Natural England’s bracken control guidelines should also be followed. Make sure any relevant consents are in place before carrying out the work. This includes consent from the Environment Agency to spray near a watercourse. |
| Mechanical bracken control | £190.90 per hectare | This item is for mechanically controlling bracken, prior to planting, to a specification agreed by the Forestry Commission. In general, mechanical control may cause more disturbance to archaeological sites, ground nesting birds and invertebrates than chemical control. During the nesting season make sure that birds are not nesting in the treated area. The site should be treated twice in year 1 prior to planting. |
| Bracken control supplement for follow up treatment | £191.25 per hectare | To control the spread of, or remove, existing dense stands of bracken prior to planting. To be used in the year following initial chemical or mechanical bracken control. If using this item, you will still need to plan to complete planting and claim within 3 years and 3 months of the agreement start date. Note that once the final capital claim has been made under a EWCO agreement and it moves into its fifteen-year maintenance period, the annual maintenance payment pays for the control of competing vegetation and this supplement is no longer available. |
5. Drinking water for livestock
| Capital items for use in woodland creation | Payment rate | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Hard base for livestock drinkers | £179.15 each | Only available when woodland creation along water courses prevents livestock accessing their usual water source. You should apply for a pump, base, pipework and trough collectively. These items cannot be applied for independently. The length of pipework funded will not exceed the distance, in a straight line, from the bank of the watercourse being buffered to the outer boundary of the new woodland. This limit will apply independently to each pump or trough required. If an alternative water source is used, the lesser distance will apply to piping being funded. You should ensure that you have any consents required for abstraction of water. Contact Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) for advice to farmers on improving water and air quality and reducing flood risk. Check if you need an environmental permit for flood risk or water abstraction licence from the Environment Agency. |
| Pasture pump and associated pipework | £295.90 each | As above. |
| Ram pump and associated pipework | £1,861.00 each | As above. |
| Livestock trough | £152.92 each | As above. |
| Pipework associated with livestock troughs | £3.31 per metre | Apply for a water abstraction or impounding licence. |
6. Flood management
| Capital items for use in woodland creation | Payment rate | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Small leaky woody dam (1 to 2.99 metres) | £461.39 each | Leaky woody dams (LWD) should: - be sited on slow flowing reaches of the water course that on average have at least two metres of floodplain on either side - include branch wood as necessary to help hold water back above the level of low flows - be built to a height sufficient to encourage water to come out of bank and on to the floodplain upstream of the LWD - be built in series (minimum number of three dams) at a spacing of approximately five to seven times the width of the channel between LWDs. You should install enough LWDs to exert a significant reduction in flood flows for the size of the catchment and nature of the downstream flood risk, or to contribute to this goal as part of a longer-term plan, in combination with the action of other landowners. Please refer to detail on the design of LWDs in the next section. You will will need approval from the Environment Agency or Lead Local Flood Authority to install LWDs. |
| Large leaky woody dam (3 to 5 metres) | £764.42 each | As above |
| Culvert | £376.23 each | To install a new culvert or to replace an existing collapsed structure to provide a watercourse crossing. New culverts will require appropriate consent from the Environment Agency (EA) or flood defence consenting authority. Specification: concrete or rigid plastic twin-wall pipe at least 450mm in diameter. Installation must comply with the Culvert design and operation guide (See CIRIA C786F) |
6.1 Leaky woody dams (summary of design and structure)
Leaky woody dams are used to hold back water in a watercourse and push it onto the floodplain when water flows are higher than normal. They are suitable for watercourses that are up to 5m wide.
A watercourse is a defined channel of flowing water, like a river or stream. The floodplain is the land either side of the watercourse.
Choosing your logs
The number and size of logs you will need will depend on the watercourse you are working on. On small channels with low bank tops a single log can be used as long as it just touches the water at normal flow.
Choose one log which:
- is long enough to extend as far into the floodplain as needed to anchor the dam in place and ensure water is diverted onto the floodplain under high flows
- has a curve or dip in the middle to funnel the flow of water to the centre of the channel
If the bank top is higher, you will need enough logs so the lowest one just touches the water at normal flow.
The rest of the logs should be:
- long enough for you to embed them into each side of the bank to stop water flowing around them
- a similar diameter
Building your leaky dam
- Embed a shorter log into both banks of the watercourse so it just touches the water at normal flow
- Stack the rest of the shorter logs on top (one on top of another) and embed them into both banks
- Place your longest log at the top so the ends sit on each side of the watercourse, level with the floodplain
- Place wooden stakes in each bank on both sides of the long log to secure the dam in place – you can also use existing trees for this
- Secure the logs to the stakes or trees using sisal (natural fibre) rope or timber screws (for stakes only).
You should consider the effect your dam will have on the surrounding environment. For example:
- avoid using straight logs so there are gaps and low points to help create varied flow patterns
- do not use timber boards
- use fresh cut willow to create your wooden stakes – if you allow it to root and grow this could increase the lifetime of the dam and provide a natural habitat
- protect the edges of the bank downstream of your dam from erosion using natural materials
- avoid siting the dam in areas of active bank erosion, choose a location which has stable banks
- expect the dam to create localised changes to the channel bed