A landowners guide to woodland creation

Land with low biodiversity, like old arable or pasture land is ideal. If your land has public access such as Right of Way or Permissive footpaths, even better.

We don’t plant on:

• High-value farmland (grades 1, 2 or 3a)
• BAP (Biodiversity Action Plan) Priority Habitats such as unimproved, species-rich grasslands, scrub or hedgerows.
• Any habitats that are proven homes to rare flora or fauna such as crested newts, or bats.
• Sites less than 2 acres, unless they would be really impactful, such as planting that connects two woodland habitats or adds to an already diverse habitat.

We’re very happy to chat to you about whether your land might be suitable.

If we think woodland creation is possible, we’ll come and visit. We’ll take a couple of hours to walk your site, take notes and figure out the best possible woodland creation for the site such as species, spacing and habitat creation potential.

It’s a little like asking “how long is a piece of string?” The total size, land complexity, access, predator abundance and planting plan all play a role. As a rule of thumb/starting point it generally costs £19,000 per hectare.

But, however much it costs, we can help you create woodlands at no cost to you.

No. We cover the costs and are reimbursed when your grant is paid out.

However, it’s worth mentioning that most grants do not cover VAT and require the applicant to cover our VAT costs. If you are VAT registered, you will be able to claim VAT back at the end of the tax year. We’ll explain how it works before you get started, so there are no surprises.

It depends on your site and the funding route you choose.

If it’s a small site (roughly 2-5 acres) we can usually handle the full consultation process.

For a larger site, we will work with one of our partners – The Woodland Trust, Forest For Cornwall, Forestry Commission, FWAG – to complete the assessment process.

After an initial site assessment and once we’ve worked out the best route, we can tell you what you’ll need to do. A further site survey and a desk survey might be sufficient. Or you may need specialist assessments such as environmental impact assessments, archeological investigations, soil surveys or looking at specific species like newts or orchids.

Whichever route you take, we help you complete any necessary assessments and paperwork, and project manage throughout the process.

The best place to start is to arrange a chat.

It depends on your site, but generally it looks like this:

1. Initial call to see if your site may be suitable for woodland creation
2. Site visit to understand more about whether your site is suitable and what route is best to take
3. Discuss planting plans and choose funding routes
4. Complete any applications and assessments
5. Plant
6. Maintain

It depends on several factors – your site, the funding route or partner you choose, and the time of year.

For smaller sites where we are providing the funding, it could take as little as 3-4 months. However, at larger sites it may take a couple of years, especially if planting takes place over more than one season.

We can give you a timescale when we speak, but to get an idea, these are the rough timescales for each stage:

Woodland planning – to organise funding and complete assessments

Small sites: 3-6 months
Larger sites: 6-12 months

Ordering trees

Our planting season runs from December to February. We need to order trees for the upcoming season by October. If we miss this window, planting must wait until the following season.

Planting

This will depend on many factors, and could be anything from a few days to several months, potentially split over two or more seasons depending on the scale.

We’re prepared for planting in the middle of the British winter, but it does rarely mean we have to postpone planting. Either due to the weather on the planting days or because the trees haven’t gone into dormancy at the right time. We do our best to get the trees in the ground that season, but if we miss the planting window, we keep the saplings safe in our yard until the following season.

No, we can also help you with any defensive structures needed such as livestock fencing, shelterbelts or hedgerow creation.

Your site will be planted by our team of experienced planters. Some sites are suitable for volunteer involvement. Our volunteers get a briefing and are supervised to make sure the planting is done correctly. Read more about why we use volunteers.

We also often have a photographer onsite, as this helps us with documenting and promoting our work.

We bring almost everything but you will need to provide:

• access to a toilet
• space for parking

We love it when landowners join us for planting days, but it’s not essential.

We help you care for your newly planted woodlands for a minimum of seven years.

We’ll arrange times to come back and check on progress, clear weeds, and support natural regeneration. Generally this happens once or twice a year, and we plan these in advance with you.