Correspondence

eAlert 12 March 2021 - New tree fund for local communities

Published 15 March 2021

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2021

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ealert-12-march-2021-new-tree-fund-for-local-communities/ealert-12-march-2021-new-tree-fund-for-local-communities

1. 12 March 2021

Hear more about our announcement for the Nature for Climate Fund, get updates on some useful information to help with your Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier application. Find out when our Felling Licence Online service is unavailable.

2. Nature for Climate Fund

We are committed to protecting and restoring our natural environment. This spring we will be making a series of Nature for Climate Fund announcements (starting with the launch of the Local Authority Treescapes Fund as detailed below). This will lead up to the publication of the government’s action plan on trees, woodland and forestry to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025.

In recent months, we have announced £12.1 million of investment for tree planting in Community Forests across the country, as well as a new £3.9 million pot to support innovative planting schemes in towns and cities and near rivers to reduce flood risk.

3. New tree fund for local communities

3.1 Today (Friday 12 March 2021) DEFRA have announced the launch of the Local Authority Treescapes Fund.

A new funding initiative to increase tree planting and natural regeneration in local communities has been announced by the government today, with £2.7 million available this year.

The Local Authority Treescapes fund is aimed at establishing more trees outside of woodlands, including neglected, disused and vacant community spaces. Up to 50 grants worth £50,000 to £300,000 will be available for local authorities to plant and encourage natural regeneration of trees to restore neglected green spaces in their communities. The fund will open for applications early April. For more information, visit our Local Authority Treescapes Fund GOV.UK page.

4. Urban Tree Challenge Fund will reopen!

4.1 Applications will open early April for both block bids and individual applications.

Following the success of the first two rounds, the Urban Tree Challenge Fund will re-open for new applications in early April 2021. The fund will open for block bids (minimum value £250,000) as well as individual applications (minimum value £10,000), combined this will plant a further 22,000 trees in urban and peri-urban areas across England, contributing 50% of the cost of tree planting and establishment. The remaining 50% will need to be secured via match funding.

The fund will only support the planting of large ‘standard’ trees with planting targeted toward areas of low canopy cover, high deprivation and proximity to healthcare and educational facilities. Trees will need to be planted, and claim forms submitted, by 31 March 2022. We will update the Urban Tree Challenge Fund GOV.UK page with more information on how to apply in early April.

5. Countryside Stewardship

5.1 Get your Higher Tier application pack now, get help on scoring, find out about refreshed options, where to get manuals and how to request an annex.

The new application window for Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier opened on 9 February 2021. You must request your Higher Tier application pack by 31 March 2021 and submit the initial application by 30 April 2021.

Following feedback on the scoring process, we have uploaded a video to YouTube which will guide you through how to score your Higher Tier application. This is also available via the ‘How to apply’ guide.

5.2 Wood pasture and parklands options have been refreshed for Countryside Stewardship

Countryside Stewardship options for wood pasture and parklands have been refreshed and more information is available now on GOV.UK:

This is particularly relevant for the uplands where there was confusion as to which options could be used.

5.3 Requesting annexes for Woodland Creation and Maintenance, Woodland Tree Health and Woodland Management Plan Grant

When applying for the following grants, the annexes are no longer available on GOV.UK to download:

You will need to request a copy from the RPA:

by email: ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk or telephone: 03000 200 301

They are available in electronic or paper format.

6. New research project evaluating Countryside Stewardship (CS) Woodland Improvement option WD2

Woodland Improvement (WD2) is the 5th most frequently implemented option under CS (and is included in 250-300 agreements annually), and therefore has significant scheme spend associated with its use. WD2 is utilised by landowners to improve the biodiversity of woodland and make it more resilient to climate change.

A Defra funded project managed by the Forestry Commission on behalf of Natural England will identify what impact WD2 has on the biodiversity priorities of the scheme. 340 scheme owners are being contacted by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) who have been awarded the research contract, to seek permission to carry out surveys during March 2021 to July 2021. This is not an inspection or audit, it is simply gathering anonymised data to analyse and produce findings which will inform woodland biodiversity objectives and approaches.

7. Felling Licence Online – planned service downtime

7.1 The service will be unavailable from 18 - 23 March 2021

The Felling Licence Online service will be unavailable from 5:00pm on Thursday 18 March to 10:00am on Tuesday 23 March.

During this time, you will not be able to log in to the service to view or process any Felling Licence Applications.

If the system downtime is subject to change, updates will be posted on our GOV.UK page: Apply online for a felling licence.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

8. New guidance on cultivation and UKFS compliance for application in England

Read our new guidance: Guidance on cultivation and UKFS compliance for application in England to help ensure cultivation for afforestation meets the minumum requirements of UKFS and ensures storage, sequestration and capture of CO2 is adequately addressed.

9. Find out more about the value of wildlife management data

9.1 Join our online event hosted with Strath Caulaidh

We are holding an online event with Strath Caulaidh Ltd on 24 March 2021 to raise awareness and understanding on the value of wildlife management data to woodland and natural asset management.

Register your attendance on eventbrite.

10. International Women’s Day

10.1 Read our blog posts!

You can hear more about the fantastic work we are doing through the International Women’s Day blogs we have posted this week!

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