Guidance

Planning new woodland - Section 1: Introduction

Updated 10 December 2024

Applies to England

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

Introduction

Trees, woodlands and forests provide a range of environmental, social and economic benefits. Creating woodland now is investing in the future.

This guide supports anyone who wants to plan, design and create new woodland in England. Following the guide will help you to get approval under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations and, if you seek one, to apply for a grant.

We (the Forestry Commission) regulate all forestry activities in England, including woodland creation, and administer grant support that you might want to apply for. This guide refers to the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS), the reference standard for sustainable forest management in the UK. We can only approve woodland creation proposals that comply with UKFS. It also refers to design principles for your new woodland, as set out in the UKFS guidelines on landscape and the Forestry Commission practice guide on Design techniques for forest management planning.

Planning your new woodland

The process of designing a new woodland brings together your management objectives, the site’s landscape context and silvicultural suitability, and environmental, economic and social factors into a comprehensive plan that will make your woodland sustainable and UKFS-compliant.

Features of the planning process should:

• be transparent and enable effective engagement with others
• use an iterative process, and the design may change in response to information received and stakeholder engagement
• use reliable information and feedback to make evidence-based decisions
• reflect that the landscape (including all environmental, heritage and other constraints and opportunities) provides the context for the planning process, allowing all aspects of UKFS to be addressed
• present a thorough approach to landscape and visual analysis, shaping design proposals that bring together and grow from an understanding of the site, the landscape setting, your objectives, and stakeholder feedback
• include proposals that are presented in an engaging, meaningful and visual way

Definition of woodland

Woodland is defined in the UK Forestry Standard as land which is under stands of trees with, or with the potential to achieve, at least 20% canopy cover. The terms ‘woodland’ and ‘forest’ are often used interchangeably. The processes described in this guide refer to any new planting or ‘natural colonisation’ (allowing or encouraging trees to establish from seeds dispersed naturally from local sources) that satisfies the above definition, irrespective of whether the term ‘woodland’ or ‘forest’ is used.

A woodland creation plan should:

• set out your objectives for the new woodland
• describe the site’s context, constraints and opportunities
• explain how your plan responds to these factors, using the evidence you have gathered and UKFS forest design principles to arrive at a good design
• reflect information and concerns that arose during your engagement with stakeholders and clarify how those concerns have been addressed
• provide sufficient information for an EIA screening opinion (if this is required)
• take account of the eligibility requirements of any woodland creation grant you may wish to apply for

Your woodland creation plan should consider all the land that you propose to create woodland on over the next 5 years and adjacent land that your proposal might affect. It should also include details of other adjacent woodland created within the last 5 years.

Overview of the woodland creation planning process

Develop your proposal

a. Site choice (if applicable).

b. Funding may be available for developing your proposal. Check with us before proceeding.

c. Scoping (objectives, stakeholders, features and potential for surveys).

d. Create an issues log.

e. Surveys.

f. Analysis.

g. Synthesis.

h. Stakeholder engagement using one or more design options.

i. Produce final woodland creation design plan.

Choose either option 1 or option 2

Option 1

1). Check if you should submit a standalone EIA enquiry form. If you don’t intend to apply for grant funding for woodland creation, depending on the size and location of the project, you may still need a decision from us on whether EIA consent is required or not.

2). Submit EIA standalone enquiry to notify the Forestry Commission or ask its opinion.

3). Application review and seeking statutory advice (where required).

EIA decision: consent not required. This is the outcome for the majority of well-evidenced and well-designed proposals. If consent is required, continue to step 4:

4). Submit application for consent including an Environmental Statement (ES).

5). Advertise ES and engage consultees.

6). EIA decision will either be ‘consent granted with conditions’ or ‘consent refused’.

Option 2

1). Apply for grant funding to create your new woodland. Usually this automatically engages the EIA process, but you should check first. See tree planting and woodland creation: overview.

2). Prepare grant application using your final woodland creation design plan.

3). Application review.

4). Seek statutory and technical advice, where required.

5). Public consultation: public notification on the consultation register.

6). Grant application decision (including EIA decision, where applicable).

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process

We have responsibility for administering the forestry EIA Regulations 1999, to ensure that woodland creation in England that exceeds published area (hectares/ha) thresholds does not have a significant negative effect on the environment.

The regulations set out a 2-stage process for determining the environmental impact of a woodland creation proposal. Most proposals will only be required to complete the first stage.

Section 4: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) explains the EIA process in detail, including area (hectares/ha) thresholds above which you must contact the Forestry Commission using the EIA enquiry form. See Environmental Impact Assessments for woodland for more information. Your Forestry Commission woodland officer can confirm if your project will require screening and, if so, when you should apply for it.

UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) compliance

Your woodland creation plan must meet the relevant requirements and follow the guidelines in the UKFS. The UKFS sets out the criteria and standards for the sustainable management of forests and woodlands in the UK.

When preparing your woodland creation plan you should consider UKFS at all times. This will ensure that your final proposal complies with the standards expected. The UKFS describes the legal and good forestry practice requirements for woodland creation and management.

The requirements are categorised into 7 different elements of sustainable forest management, each supported by guidelines for managers. Together these form the basis for assessing woodland creation proposals. Read the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS).

Woodland creation proposal

There are 7 elements of the UKFS that will feed into your woodland creation proposal. The elements should not be considered in isolation but through an integrated design approach:

• biodiversity
• climate change
• historic environment
• landscape
• people
• soils
• water

Before you start

You need to:

1. Speak to your local woodland officer or contact your local Forestry Commission office to have one assigned to you. Their advice is free.

2. Check with the local authority (LA) about constructing forest roads and tracks if you plan to include these in your proposal.

3. Consider applying for grant support for planning and establishing your new woodland.

Get expert advice

Before you start preparing your woodland creation plan there are a few points to consider.

It is often a good idea to engage a professional forestry agent to help prepare your woodland creation plan, or work with one of our delivery partners.

You should also consider seeking other expert advice if your plan needs to account for environmental, historical, social, landscape or other sensitivities. For example, on larger, complex, or sensitive proposals in designated landscapes, experts could help by writing a landscape character appraisal.

It is important that your woodland officer is familiar with your woodland creation proposal. Engage with them early, see Section 5 for contact details. It can be helpful to have an initial understanding of your site and a sketch of how your proposal might look, to aid this conversation.

If you plan to create all or part of your woodland via natural colonisation, read using natural colonisation for the creation of new woodland.

Check with the local authority about constructing forest roads and tracks

If you plan to build forest roads or tracks or other pathways for forestry access or management in your woodland creation scheme, you must notify the local planning authority and send them a description of planned infrastructure work.

They will decide whether it can be classified as a permitted development. Permitted developments do not require full planning permission. If the LA tells you that permitted development is allowed, you should then check with us to see if you need our formal opinion on the planned infrastructure work under the forestry EIA regulations.

However, if the planning authority tells you that planning permission is required, ask them to consider the whole of your infrastructure project from the highway edge to the end of the route. This will avoid the need for a separate forestry EIA decision to be made as well.

If a road or track is set to cross a watercourse or use culverts during its construction, use or maintenance, then you must also check whether you need consent for this from either the local planning authority or (if your proposal is in an internal drainage district) from the internal drainage board.

Check with the local authority about constructing ponds and scrapes as part of your proposal

The design of new woodlands and forests can provide an opportunity to create new ponds, scrapes and associated forest wetland features that will add to the overall environmental value of the woodland.

Always consult your local planning authority to establish if planning permission is required. Expert information on the design of ponds and associated wetland habitat can be obtained from The Freshwater Habitats Trust, County Wildlife Trusts and environmental consultants.

Think about long-term economic viability

Consider whether income generation from your new woodland is an important objective for you, and how the long-term management of the woodland will be paid for.

Future management of new woodland should be an early consideration in the planning process. To increase the potential of your future woodland to provide long-term social, environmental and economic objectives, it will be important to make regular checks to ensure that trees are healthy, damage from browsing animals is low, and undesirable plant species are not becoming established on the site.

We recommend that woodland owners have a long-term management plan for their woodland and that this is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect changes in woodland condition or owner objectives.

The long-term economic viability of your woodland should be factored into management plans and planned for from the outset.

Site choice and guiding principles

Once you have collated the information that will influence the design of the woodland, you should consider the following basic principles (as they apply to your site) as you embark on designing your woodland:

• avoid obvious sensitivities or constraints (avoiding is easier than mitigating)
• land used for agriculture is graded from 1 (best) to 5 (unimproved). Grades 1, 2 and 3a are currently excluded from the EIA low risk map (2017) and the current low sensitivity map for woodland creation because of their high value for food production
• don’t expect to create woodland on 100% of a site, right up to every boundary
• consider a range of site suitable tree species, and don’t expect to plant a single species monoculture across the entire site
• remember to design the woodland’s open space, not just the stands of trees
• design existing site features and constraints into the new woodland, you may have opportunities to enhance existing features
• match the tree species to the site’s characteristics, rather than trying to fit the site to tree species you have in mind
• think about how your new woodland will fit into and could benefit your existing business, where applicable. For example, could trees provide shelter and shade to livestock on the holding?
• lots of factors can affect the time it will take to put your design together. For example, if the land is in an existing agri-environment scheme you should check on the scheme’s end date and the rules around withdrawing land early (if you wish to do so)

If a survey is needed to confirm the presence of a constraint, it may be limited to certain times of the year:

• upland breeding birds (including waders): March to July
• priority habitats: optimal period May to August
• peaty soils: any time of year
• invertebrates: varies but mostly spring/summer
• lowland waders: breeding March to July, wintering November to February

Applying for grant support

There are different grant schemes available for woodland creation projects. Projects need to comply with the UKFS and meet the grant scheme’s eligibility requirements.

Read about our grants: tree planting and woodland creation: overview. Funding is available from other organisations too, such as our delivery partners.

An application for our woodland creation grant must include some form of woodland creation plan (often contained within the grant application form) that demonstrates that the project will comply with the UKFS. This will usually be taken as a ‘stage 1’ EIA application (see Section 4, which means that we will give you a regulatory decision about your proposal at the same time as giving you a grant funding decision.

The requirements (in terms of minimum woodland size, for example) differ across grant schemes and you should consider these alongside your management objectives when producing your woodland creation plan.

Funding is available through the Woodland Creation Planning Grant to help with the costs of producing your plan through the process described in this guide, including contributions to specialist surveys that may be needed.

It is essential that work does not begin on any grant-funded activity until you have a signed grant agreement. Work carried out before you have a signed agreement will be ineligible for funding.

You should, however, speak to nurseries early about availability of plant supply. If you are sourcing trees for projects that will be grant aided, you are likely to need to ensure the trees are from a nursery which is certified as bio-secure. This will be through the Plant Healthy Certification Scheme, or Ready to Plant assessment. The more notice you can give your nursery, the more likely they are to be able to fulfil any order you make later.

Grant funding is not available for woodland creation that is:

• already required by any form of legally binding obligation, such as planning consent or a section 106 agreement. However, in these cases you should still consider the requirements and guidelines of the UKFS as part of your design
• on land that was previously wooded and then felled or deforested within the past 20 years
• on land that is currently subject to incompatible or overlapping obligations under an existing grant scheme. In certain circumstances you may be able to amend or withdraw from an existing grant scheme in order to enter a new one, though this may be subject to penalties or repayment of grant funding. In this case, you will need to contact the relevant organisation that administers the existing grant scheme. If in doubt, check the MAGIC map application for ‘Land Based Schemes’ and ask your woodland officer for advice

You may wish to secure future investment for the carbon sequestered by your woodland creation project, by registering with the Woodland Carbon Code, a voluntary quality assurance standard backed by the government, forest industry and carbon market experts.

Carbon funding can be in addition to any woodland creation grant funding that you receive, as long as certain requirements are met, including a test of ‘financial additionality’. Read more about the UK Woodland Carbon Code.

Read Tree planting and woodland creation case studies of successful projects from across England.

If you are registering with the Woodland Carbon Code, you must register your project before any work has begun on site, including any fencing or soil cultivation. If you do not register your project before planting, you will not be able to register your project retrospectively and will lose the opportunity to receive carbon funding from the sale of Woodland Carbon Units or use the Units to reduce your businesses future net carbon emissions (known as ‘insetting’). Read more about the UK Woodland Carbon Code.

Next: Section 2: Preparing to plan (scoping and survey).