It’s time to branch out: How woodland creation benefits your farm
Updated 19 January 2024
Applies to England
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Plant now to realise the true potential of woodland creation for you and for future generations.
Planting the right trees in the right places for the right reasons can provide far-reaching benefits for your farm business. With financial incentives available and expert support on hand, woodland creation can help you diversify, generate reliable revenue streams and deliver environmental benefits that support your wider land management goals.
Get paid for creating woodland
Financial support is available through the Forestry Commission and via our partners. Our flagship England Woodland Creation Offer covers standard capital costs and annual maintenance payments as your woodland establishes, with additional stackable payments when delivering wider benefits to society, nature recovery, and the environment.
Applicants can also retain Basic Payment Scheme payments and receive a contribution towards the costs of access infrastructure.
Generate income
Timber and local woodfuel can provide a reliable income stream for your farm business, and coppice can be used to produce further wood products such as wood chippings and temporary fencing. You can also benefit from cost savings: biomass can heat farm buildings, and commercial woodlands are subject to a range of tax reliefs.
Capture carbon and offset emissions
Registering with the Woodland Carbon Code allows you to sell carbon units for every tonne of CO₂ sequestered to the government for a guaranteed, index-linked price every five or 10 years up to 2055/56 – leaving you free to sell them on the private market. Offsetting your carbon emissions will help meet increasing demand for net zero supply chains.
Protect livestock
Trees help protect against more frequent extreme weather conditions, reducing lamb losses by up to 30%, and increasing overall productivity.
Manage soil and nutrient losses
Planting woodland between the field edge and a river can reduce sediment run-off by 90-100%, nutrient losses by 20-80%, and reduce pesticide loss in run-off by 60-100%.
Reduce erosion
Planting trees along rivers helps to stabilise riverbanks and prevent landslips.
Cut farm pollution
Planting woodland shelterbelts around your farm lowers windspeed and can reduce spray drift up to 90%. Well-positioned woodland along rivers and streams could also help capture pesticide run-off and ammonia released from livestock units.
Create natural flood management and improve water quality
Woodland in the right place helps slow run-off from your land as well as helping to reduce water pollution in our streams, rivers, and lakes.
Tenant Farmers
Grants are available to tenant farmers, with woodland creation offering mutual benefits to you and your landlord.
Find out more
Find further guidance on woodland creation and information on available grants and support.
Read about farmers already benefitting from woodland creation.
Forestry Commission woodland creation grants
Woodland Creation Planning Grant (WCPG): contributes towards the costs of designing your new woodland in line with the UK Forestry Standard, and offers you access to expert advice from your local Forestry Commission Woodland Creation Team to assist in the production of your plan.
England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO): covers standard capital costs and annual maintenance payments as your woodland establishes, with additional stackable payments when delivering wider benefits to society, nature recovery, and the environment.
Woodland Carbon Code (WCC): the UK’s voluntary carbon standard for woodland creation projects, providing a standard way to measure the amount of CO₂ your woodland stores.
Woodland Carbon Guarantee (WCaG): provides the option to sell your captured CO₂ to the government for a guaranteed, index-linked price every five or 10 years up to 2055/56.
Forestry England Woodland Partnership: a leasehold scheme offering commercial rent to landowners for 60 to 120 years. Forestry England design, plant, and manage your woodland.
Read more on woodland creation grants.
Partner woodland creation grants
Discover which grant is most suitable for you by visiting the relevant partner website.
England’s Community Forests Trees for Climate Fund: expert support and up to 100% flexible and bespoke grant funding for up to 15 years. Open to all landowners within any Community Forest area.
The National Forest: generous grants and support for tree planting, forest creation and habitat management in the Midlands, available to landowners within the 200 square miles of the National Forest.
Northern Forest: a partnership between the Woodland Trust, four Community Forests – Mersey Forest, Manchester City of Trees, White Rose Forest, Humber Forest – and the Community Forest Trust, with funding from the government’s Nature for Climate Fund. You can secure up to 100% of the capital costs of woodland design, planning and creation and a generous maintenance budget.
Woodland Trust: offers 3 national schemes - MOREwoods and MOREhedges covering up to 75% of the costs for a range of woodland and hedgerow creation, starting from 1.25 acres or 100 metres of new hedging, and Trees for Your Farm, funding up to 100% of costs for bespoke agroforestry schemes.
Contact us
Your local Forestry Commission Woodland Creation Team can support you with further expert advice on woodland creation and guidance on available grants. Find your local Woodland Creation Team.
Follow us on Twitter: @ForestryComm.