The Woodland Creation and Maintenance Grant is a grant made up of a capital element under which you can apply for support to create a woodland, followed by a maintenance element to maintain it. The agreement is new for 2021 and combines the existing Woodland Creation grant and the Woodland Creation Maintenance (WD1) payments. If successful your agreement will have two elements:
- Woodland creation – this element runs for two years, during which you have to complete all of the capital works
- Woodland maintenance – if you are eligible, this element begins once your capital works are completed. It runs for ten years and throughout that time you will receive an annual grant of £200 per hectare.
The Countryside Stewardship Woodland Creation and Maintenance Grant is available all year round. There are 18 capital items available, and the primary item is TE4 (Tree Planting). There is a description and essential requirements for each of the capital items.
A Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant Agreement comprises of:
- The Countryside Stewardship Terms and Conditions
- Agreement Document for Woodland Creation
- Agreement Document for Woodland Maintenance (if eligible)
- Supplementary documents referred to in the Agreement Document
The Woodland Creation element will run for a maximum of 2 years from the start date of your agreement (if you finish the works before this period the agreement may not run for the whole period). During the two years, you must complete all Woodland Creation capital works, you will then have a further 3 months from the end of this period to submit your payment claim.
If you are eligible, you will receive a letter asking you to confirm whether or not you wish to enter into the Woodland Maintenance element of the agreement. If you confirm that you wish to enter into the Woodland Maintenance, you will be eligible for funding for the 10 year period following the initial Woodland Creation element period. You will receive annual payments of £200 per hectare to maintain your woodland and capital items that were funded through the Woodland Creation Grant over this 10-year period. To support the successful establishment and ongoing maintenance of new woodland you will need to:
- keep all newly planted trees weed-free for 10 years
- replace any trees that die
- maintain fences, tree shelters or spiral guards
- maintain areas of open space
- remove individual tree protection in year 10
If you do not wish to enter into the Woodland Maintenance element, you must continue to maintain the capital items funded through the Woodland Creation element for 5 years following the date of the final Creation payment.
Woodland Creation and Maintenance agreements are competitive. Applications will be scored and those with the highest score (depending on the budget that is available) will be offered an agreement. You need to score your own application first by filling in the scoring section in the Woodland Creation annex of the application form. You will need to submit this along with your initial application. You need to score 12 points for an initial application to be accepted and taken it forward. Once you have agreed your final application it will be given final score. Every month a final threshold score based on the budget that is available will be set. If your application has a final score equal to or greater than the final threshold score you will be offered an agreement.
The highest Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant scores are for applications that cover a large geographical area (the score is multiplied by the hectares of woodland you propose to create), and those that have the greatest positive impact on:
- biodiversity
- water (quality and flooding)
- climate change
Incentives for planting to enhance air quality will be included in the near future. You will be awarded additional points if you are working in a partnership at a landscape scale (involving multiple ownerships) in specific target areas. If your application is unsuccessful you can re-apply at any time. However, you will need to change your application to increase its score so it has a chance of meeting a subsequent clearing score.
If you require further information or help with completing an application, please contact us on 01558 650381.