Forestry project checks: all projects
This page gives a checklist of actions that applicants must complete before submitting a forestry Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) application.
Applies to England
This page gives a checklist of actions that you, as the applicant, must complete before submitting a forestry Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) application to the Forestry Commission.
You can also use this page as a set of good practice guidelines for designing any forestry proposal. More information on when you need to apply for a forestry EIA is available on the Environmental Impact Assessments for Woodland page.
Use this page as a ‘must-do’ checklist when:
- applying for a forestry Environmental Impact Assessment.
You can also refer to this page as a ‘good practice’ guide when:
- designing a forestry project
- applying for a felling licence
- applying for a forestry grant scheme
- creating a woodland management plan
Checklist of key actions: all forestry projects
This checklist walks you through key actions you should take in relation to every forestry project. In addition to these key actions, you may need to take further actions if you have specific constraints on your land.
For more information on identifying these additional constraints and associated actions, please see: Forestry project checks: constraints.
Check whether your proposal requires a forestry Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) application
Submitting a ‘stage 1’ EIA application is how you can confirm whether the Forestry Commission believes that your project is likely to have a significant effect on the environment or not. Projects that are likely to have a significant effect on the environment (determined beyond doubt at ‘stage 1’) require ‘stage 2’ EIA consent. A ‘stage 1’ application will therefore provide you with certainty as to whether you will need ‘stage 2’ EIA consent from the Forestry Commission before you carry out your project.
Carrying out a forestry project without a ‘stage 2’ EIA consent where it was required will leave you liable to the Forestry Commission taking enforcement action against you. This may include, but is not limited to, requiring you to restore the land to its previous condition at your own expense.
For smaller scale projects you may not even need to submit a ‘stage 1’ EIA application as the project is likely not to need ‘stage 2’ consent.
The term ‘stage 1’ EIA is an umbrella term for ‘applications for Opinions’, ‘Basic Notifications’ and ‘Full Notifications’. ‘Stage 2’ EIA refers to ‘applications for Consent’, incorporating an Environmental Statement.
How to do this
Refer to GOV.UK page Environmental Impact Assessment for woodland, where you will find more information on whether you need to submit a ‘stage 1’ forestry EIA application.
Check your land using free online mapping tools.
You should use online mapping tools to find environmental information about your land, such as the presence of a Site of Special Scientific Interest or a priority habitat. Designations and features – or ‘constraints’ – will affect how you design and carry out your project.
Some constraints may also require you to carry out other statutory duties, for instance by seeking separate licences or permissions.
How to do this
Use the Forestry Commission map browser to look at environmental information about your land. Use the Forestry Commission’s Land Information Search tool within the browser to create a report of some of your land’s designations and features.
You should also use Defra’s MAGIC map. This contains different datasets to the Forestry Commission map browser. Use it to find other important environmental information such as information on Higher Level Stewardship and Agricultural Land Classification.
Once you’ve run these reports, compare your results within the constraints listed in Forestry project checks: constraints. This will allow you to check what statutory obligations are attached to particular constraints. This will guide you as to when you may need to engage with particular stakeholders or apply for a separate licence or permission before carrying out your project.
Conduct a ‘walk over’ survey of your site
Not every feature of interest on your land is mapped at a national, or even a local level. Conducting your own walkover survey will help cover any gaps in local and national records and mapping and identify obvious constraints at the site level.
How to do this
Walk your site yourself, or employ an agent to do so, and produce a map of features of interest that may not be otherwise mapped, such as:
- habitat features, like veteran trees and hedgerows
- localised priority habitats
- localised peaty soils
- bodies of water and watercourses, like springs and flushes
- water-related infrastructure, like drinking water sources, flood defences, drains, culverts and bridges
- other infrastructure, like pipes and overhead cables
- public access, like viewpoints
- common types of historical evidence found in woodland, like earthworks and stone features
- geological features, like chalk pits, caves and cliffs
- landscape features, such as landform and field pattern (enclosure)
You may wish to take photographs of what you find. Mark features of interest on your proposal map or plan and design your project accordingly.
Contact your local historic environment or archaeology service
Any forestry proposal could have the potential to affect the historic environment. Not all elements of the historic environment are obvious, especially when in woodland or when buried underground.
The local authority historic environment / archaeology service maintains a register of known archaeological sites in their area. They will also list other historic sites, such as Listed Buildings, burial grounds and military aircraft crash sites.
How to do this
Local historic environment / archaeology services are usually based within your local authority. You can find a local officer through the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers. You should contact this service to obtain:
- details from the Historic Environment Record
- Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) maps
The local historic environment service may go on to recommend additional actions and surveys.
You should include records and maps obtained from the local historic environment service in your application.
Contact your Local Environment Records Centres
Local Environment Records Centres (LERC), sometimes called Local Biological Records Centres, keep records of species and habitats and information on Local Sites. They are usually hosted within another organisation, such as your local authority or Wildlife Trust.
You should contact your LERC as soon as you begin assessing your proposal’s potential impact on biodiversity. It is better to know about potential priority and protected species and priority habitats on your land well in advance. This is in case seasonal surveys, licences or further permissions are needed to carry out forest works.
How to do this
Contact the LERC for any information, records or species sightings they hold about your land. There may be more than one relevant record centre in your county. They usually charge a small fee for their service. Find your nearest LERC.
You should expect a response from the record centre, and they may go on to recommend additional actions and surveys. You may have further obligations if the records show priority habitats or the presence of Local Sites. See Forestry project checks: constraints.
If you think you need bespoke advice on biodiversity, there are organisations and charities that may be able to assist you. When asking for advice, do not take a lack of response as an endorsement of your proposal. Keep a record of who you contact, when you contacted them, and what their response was, in an issues log. For an example of an issues log, refer to the EIA application forms.
Examples of charities who might be able to provide advice, but are not obligated to do so, include:
- The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
- Bat Conservation Trust (BCT)
- The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE)
- The Wildlife Trust
Contact your neighbours
Neighbours’ properties might be affected by your proposal. For example, your proposal may restrict access, cause noise, obstruct views, increase flood risk or result in loss of light.
While it is important to consult your neighbours and take their views into account, the Forestry Commission will consider all responses in the context of the UK Forestry Standard.
How to do this
You should tell your neighbours about your proposal and have regard to their comments. Keep a record of who you contact, when you contacted them, and what their response was, in an issues log. For an example of an issues log, refer to the EIA application forms.
You could conduct leaflet drops for larger projects that affect multiple households or create a project website.
When numerous neighbours are located near your project, you may wish to contact the local parish council for a collective community response rather than contacting neighbours individually. Roughly a third of people in England live in an area served by a town or parish council. If you have one, it is likely to have its own website.
Contact other stakeholders
Stakeholder engagement is a fundamental part of good forestry project design. It helps you demonstrate that your proposal meets the expectations of the UK Forestry Standard.
It’s important to keep records of who you contact and when, the information they send, and how your proposal accounts for this information. This forms the basis of an issues log. For an example of an issues log, refer to the EIA application forms.
Supplying an issues log to the Forestry Commission is a simple way to help the Forestry Commission determine the outcome of your application in a faster way and may eliminate the need for the Forestry Commission to seek further information from you regarding your proposal.
How to do this
Depending on your location and the nature of your project, you may need to engage with the following, if applicable:
- tenants, trustees, or other leaseholders
- those with a legal interest e.g. companies with wayleaves (e.g. water pipes or other service infrastructure)
- special interest groups with a known interest in the land / project
- environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) if warranted by the scale or sensitivity of your project
- any person or organisation who has commented upon the scheme to date
These checks should be alongside any stakeholder engagement and consultation with statutory bodies that you do as part of your due diligence after a constraints check. See Forestry project checks: constraints.
Contact your local council if your site has any form of public right of way
Public rights of way include footpaths, bridleways, restricted byways and byways. The local highway authority, which sits within the local council, needs to know if you are conducting works that affect any form of public access.
In addition to public rights of way, some land has other public access rights, such as open access land (CROW land) or Common land. These sorts of open access land should show up on a Land Information Search. They have further obligations attached to them, which you can read about in Forestry project checks: constraints.
Public rights of way are marked on Ordnance Survey and other maps, and on some council websites. CROW and Common land will show up on a Land Information Search.
How to do this
If there are any rights of way on your site, you will need to get in touch with the local highway authority within your local council.
Contact your local council to check whether there is a Local Nature Recovery Strategy in place
The Local Nature Recovery Strategy aims to restore and link up habitats at a local authority level. If your local council has its Local Nature Recovery Strategy in place, it will produce a statement of biodiversity priorities and a local habitat map. The map will show county wildlife sites, local nature reserves and other areas considered to be important for biodiversity.
How to do this
If available, check both map and statement to see whether your proposal is suitable for the area. For example, an area targeted for peatland restoration in a Local Nature Recovery Strategy may not be suitable for an afforestation proposal.
Check that your proposal complies with the UK Forestry Standard
The Forestry Commission will only approve proposals that are in line with government policy, and therefore designed to the principles of the UK Forestry Standard.
Projects that are not submitted to the Forestry Commission should still follow the UKFS, which sets the standard for sustainable forest management in the UK.
If you’ve been served a Statutory Plant Health Notice and need to carry out work to comply with this notice, you should not be constrained by UKFS compliance. However, you will still have to get consent when legally required, for example, when undertaking work on a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
How to do this
Refer to the UK Forestry Standard. This sets out general forestry practice. It also sets out the elements of sustainable forestry management, such as biodiversity, climate change, historic environment, landscape, people, soil and water, and explains how to consider your project against each. Conveniently, these also broadly overlap with the requirements under the forestry EIA regulations.
The Forestry Commission makes it easier for you to design a UKFS-compliant afforestation project by offering the Woodland Creation Planning Grant. If you intend to apply for this grant, you must do so before submitting a forestry EIA application to the Forestry Commission. Much of the data that you will be funded to gather may be submitted as part of a subsequent EIA application.
All new planting over 10 ha (including restocking an alternative area)
Contact the local planning authority to assess landscape impact
Larger projects, such as large-scale woodland planting are likely to have a significant visual impact on the landscape. Your proposal should be designed to fit into the current landscape. You will need to make sure that your project is suitable for the local landscape character by speaking to the relevant team in the local planning authority.
Your local planning authority normally sit within your district / borough council. Find your local council.
Your local authority may have already carried out a local landscape character assessment for your area. You can refer to this when designing your project and the Forestry Commission will ask for this information on the EIA application form.
All new planting over 50ha (including restocking an alternative area)
Contact the Environment Agency for advice
Trees and forests can use more water than other types of vegetation. Large scale woodland creation can significantly affect the quantity of groundwater (water below the surface of the ground) in the area. The Environment Agency will be able to give you advice on the potential effects of woodland creation and make suggestions for how to mitigate these effects in your project design.
Contact the Environment Agency: enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk
All felling proposals
Check whether you require a felling licence
All felling in England requires a felling licence from the Forestry Commission, unless an exemption applies.
Find out whether you need a licence by referring to the Forestry Commission booklet Tree Felling: Getting Permission.
In order to be eligible to be issued with a felling licence, you must have sufficient legal interest (e.g. ownership) in the land where the felling will take place. Find out more on the GOV.UK page Tree felling licence: When you need to apply.
Check whether there is a Tree Preservation Order or Conservation Area on the land
Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) protect specific trees, groups of trees, areas of trees or woodlands in the interests of amenity. Conservation Areas protect areas of special architectural or historic interest.
TPOs and Conservation Areas are not mapped on national mapping services and will not be picked up in a Land Information Search. However, they will be known to the local authority (usually the local planning authority) that created them.
You must declare the presence of any TPOs or Conservation Areas on your site as part of your felling licence application.
Contact your Local Planning Authority (LPA). They will be able to send you further information and may have online maps available on their local authority website.
Since TPOs and Conservation Areas are both considered constraints, more information about both is found on Forestry project checks: constraints.
Assess wildfire risk if you will not be restocking the land
Risk of wildfire increases if you are converting forest to open space, particularly heathland or grassland. Woodlands can act as fire breaks, helping to stop the spread of fires. Wildfire is a growing and serious issue in English land management.
Assessing wildfire risk does not apply to felling proposals that are for thinning only.
The Forestry Commission document Operations Note 40: Assessment of potential wildfire risk resulting from planned deforestation to open habitat will tell you how to carry out a wildfire risk assessment. You may need to contact the Fire and Rescue Service for advice to assess and plan for wildfire risk on your land.
Check whether your proposal is on Crown land
A large proportion of English land is Crown land which is owned by the government or the crown. This includes land managed by bodies such as the Ministry of Defence, the Forestry Commission and the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall.
If you are a tenant on Crown land and you apply for a felling licence, you will need to obtain approval of your restocking proposal (if any) from the Crown body who you lease the land from and include this in your felling application.
If you are the owner of Crown land (e.g. the Ministry of Defence), you do not require a felling licence. However, you are may not be exempt from needing a ‘stage 2’ forestry EIA consent.
If you are on tenanted farmland you should check your lease to find out which (if any) Crown body owns your land.
Further information
If you have any questions, you can contact your nearest Forestry Commission area office.