Correspondence

eAlert 26 April 2021 - Urban Tree Challenge Fund reopens

Published 4 May 2021

Applies to England

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

26 April 2021

1. 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. 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.

2. Urban Tree Challenge Fund Now Open

2.1 44,000 trees to be planted as Urban Tree Challenge Fund reopens.

The Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF) is now open for applications, with a planting target of 44,000 large trees across England’s towns and cities. These will help areas improve health and wellbeing and help connect people to the outdoors, as well as playing a crucial role in the fight against climate change, supporting the UK’s journey to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and commitment to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares of trees a year by 2025.

The fund has reopened following the success of the first two rounds where a combined total of up to 134,000 new trees will be planted across England’s towns and cities.

The fund is open to block bids that cover multiple planting sites (minimum value £250,000) as well as individual applications (minimum value £10,000), contributing 50% of the cost of tree planting and three years of establishment. The remaining 50% will need to be secured via match funding. Further information is available on the Urban Tree Challenge Fund GOV.UK page along with application forms. Applications must be submitted by 23:59 on 25 July 2021.

3. Local Authority Treescapes Fund

3.1 Helping establish more trees in riverbanks, hedgerows, parklands, urban areas, beside roads and footpaths, in copses and shelterbelts, including neglected, disused and vacant community spaces.

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

The Local Authority Treescapes fund announced by Defra last month is now open for applications, it 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 colonisation of trees to restore neglected green spaces in their communities. The fund opened on 20 April and applications will close at 23:59 on 31 May 2021 . For more information, visit our Local Authority Treescapes Fund GOV.UK page.

4. Ambitious plans to grow the nation’s forests with The Forestry England Woodland Partnership

4.1 Forestry England have launched a new leasehold offer and are looking to form new partnerships with landowners from the private and public sector.

Once a lease partnership is agreed between the landowner and Forestry England, Forestry England will design, plant and manage every site as part of the nation’s forests and pay an annual, guaranteed rent.

To be eligible the area of land entered into the scheme must be at least 50ha and committed to woodland for a minimum of 60 years. All of the woodland created by Forestry England will be optimised for environmental, social and economic benefits. These woodlands will be publicly accessible for the period of the lease and will meet Woodland Carbon Code standards to allow for future carbon trading.

To find out more, check eligibility and to apply visit the Forestry England web pages.

5. Forest Workforce Research Required

5.1 Forestry Commission are co-funding a new Workforce and Skills Survey.

The programme of work being developed to support the delivery of the Nature for Climate Fund has identified that to support government ambitions, there needs to be a significant increase in the UK forestry sector workforce. To this end, we are commissioning research that will allow the sector to better understand the capacity of the current workforce, as well as where the potential gaps might be if we are to achieve our targets in future.

More information (including the link to the invitation to tender) can be found on our partner Lantra’s website, and we would ask anyone considering tendering for this work to read the specification carefully and to either raise any queries with us directly through Liz.Barron-Majerik@lantra.co.uk.

Closing date for submissions is 5:00pm on 28 April 2021.

6. Countryside Stewardship deadline for WD2 Woodland Improvement Applications

6.1 Initial applications must be submitted by Friday 30 April 2021.

The application deadline for this year’s Countryside Stewardship Woodland Improvement (WD2) scheme is approaching – the deadline for initial applications is 23:59 on Friday 30 April 2021. If woodland is included in a Countryside Stewardship application, the Woodland Management Plan must be approved, or approved in principle, before the Higher Tier initial application is submitted.

A recurring theme on WD2 applications is the inclusion of SSSIs. If you have a SSSI on your land, you must consult with Natural England. If the SSSI is in target condition, you must include it in your WD2 application even if there are no suitable woodland Countryside Stewardship management options for it. If it is not in target condition, work must be done to bring it up to a standard agreed with Natural England. You may need to change your land use code in this instance e.g. from Woodland to non-Woodland, so that you can access agri-environment options. Your Natural England advisor will guide you through this process. If the agreed minimum standard is not met, none of your land will be eligible for Countryside Stewardship. Applicants will also need to consider Scheduled Monuments - more information will be in the Historic Environment Farm Environment Records (HEFERS) from Historic England that accompany an application pack.

7. Updated Woodland Carbon Code

7.1 At the end of March the Woodland Carbon Code version 2.1 was published.

You can find out about all the important changes on their news item, there are also links to the new standard document and template documents.

There are some really important changes that come into effect at the end of June 2021 that applicants need to be aware of:

Registration: After 30 June 2021, projects have to be registered before planting starts:

• if you planted this winter (20/21) and were planning on registering, make sure you submit by 30 June 2021
• if you are planting next winter (21/22), make sure you register before you plant

Registration, Validation or Verification: If you have started preparing documents for any of these stages, you have until 30 June 2021 to submit your project using the current version of documents. After that date all projects must be submitted on the new Version 2.1 documents (Version 2.4 for the Carbon Calculator).

The 30 April is also the deadline for submitting Higher Tier Woodland Improvement 2021 initial applications.