Guidance

Planning new woodland - Section 2: Preparing to plan (scoping and survey)

Updated 10 December 2024

Applies to England

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

Go back to Section 1: Introduction.

Preparing to plan your woodland: scoping and survey

Overview of scoping and survey: considerations, actions and outputs

For each woodland creation site choice, the following processes are necessary:

1). Scoping

You should consider:

• management objectives
• site characteristics
• landscape and nature recovery context
• low risk areas for woodland creation
• UKFS forest design principles

Action: consider sketching a working proposal as a starting point.

What you need to produce: landscape context plan.

2). Create an issues log

You should consider:

• your stakeholders and who you need to be engaging with, as early as possible
• your initial findings from the scoping stage

Action: set up your issues log as a live document. You will be updating it throughout the process.

What you need to produce: an issues log.

3). Surveys

You should consider:

• your stakeholders
• site characteristics
• your initial findings from the scoping stage
• which desk survey findings indicate the need for field surveys

Action:

• desk survey(s)
• field surveys(s)

What you need to produce:

• landscape character appraisal (including an updated landscape context plan)
• updated issues log

4). Analysis

Introduction to scoping and survey

The scoping stage is when you identify the potential for, and extent of, woodland creation on your site, and who, or what, might be affected by it. The survey stage is when you identify the site’s context, sensitivities, constraints and vulnerabilities, so that the new woodland is designed to be appropriate and sustainable.

This section gives a step-by-step guide to the actions you need to take to gather the information to inform your woodland creation proposal.

Appendix 1 explains the general mapping standards for woodland creation proposals, and what to show on the maps and plans in your woodland creation plan. In particular, it describes and provides examples of 3 fundamental spatial plans in your woodland creation plan: the landscape context plan, site appraisal plan, and design concept plan.

It is also sometimes necessary to produce additional outputs to support these, as part of your plan. For example, annotated photographs, illustration of cross-sections, and drawings or digital renders of the new woodland from different perspectives can be useful for further illustrating important parts of your analysis and design. Using them to support your site appraisal plan and design concept plan is good practice, particularly for large-scale, complex or sensitive sites. You can see examples of these types of additional outputs at Appendix 2.

The UKFS guidelines on general forestry practice and the practice guide Design techniques for forest management planning will help you work through the 7 stages of producing a forest management plan (the general term for a plan that outlines intentions over the next 10 years for new or existing woodlands). Following the detailed advice in the practice guide will give you enough credible information to write a plan for a new woodland that complies with the UKFS.

Scoping stage

You will need to provide information about your site. The degree of detail you provide will depend on the landscape context of the proposed woodland. Producing a landscape context plan, a map showing the wider context of the site and highlighting relevant landscape and visual characteristics and site features, will assist with scoping the proposal. See an example in Appendix 1.

Scoping stage: management objectives

Be clear about the short and long-term objectives for your woodland as this will inform the rest of the process. You might have multiple objectives for the same woodland, for example commercial timber production, nature recovery, public recreation, natural flood management or business diversification. They will reflect the nature and characteristics of the site, and will inform the type of woodland that is created. The UKFS general forestry practice section explains how to develop management objectives.

Scoping stage: identify your stakeholders and analyse their potential concerns

Depending on the scale and sensitivity of your woodland creation project, you will need to engage the local community (for example, through a parish council) and neighbours to seek their views. You may also need to engage with public bodies, especially if there are designated landscapes or protected sites or features on or near your proposed site.

If you think your project could impact on neighbours or other stakeholders, engage with them at an early stage and tailor your conversation to the audience, to make the best use of your time and the information they can provide to you. This might bring to light important and useful new information about the site that will help you improve the design of your proposal. It is also likely to make the later stages of the planning and design process easier, especially if we (the Forestry Commission) decide that consent is required under EIA regulations.

To identify constraints on your land and other checks you will need to make read Forestry project checks: constraints and Forestry project checks: all projects.

Scoping stage: create an issues log

The scoping stage is a good time to set up an issues log – a record of positive or negative considerations and actions taken or mitigations proposed during the planning and design process. We recommend that you start one early, to provide a record of your journey to develop a woodland creation proposal, the considerations that arise and any actions taken.

The log should be a working document that is updated as issues are found and addressed. It should be proportionate to the scale and sensitivity of your proposal. See Appendix 3 for an example of what an issues log may look like. An example of an issues log can also be found in the EIA application forms.

The issues log can provide a basis for stakeholder engagement and discussions with your woodland officer (and agent or woodland creation advisor, if you have one) on the appropriate next steps. Recording what has been considered and reviewed can help you answer stakeholder questions, reducing the need for more correspondence later. It will also help you move through the EIA process, UKFS compliance assessment and the grant approval process.

Survey stage

During the survey stage, you should collate and assess information on the site’s characteristics and landscape context, which will determine whether any follow-up surveys are needed to help develop your plan.

Early engagement with us is recommended to help you with the main types and level of information you need to consider for your site.

Take the survey stage to:

• determine if there are existing survey data or maps available for the site that can be used to identify areas or features of interest
• identify the location, extent, distribution and interaction of features (such as wildlife rich habitats or historic environment features) that should be protected, will require mitigation, or could provide opportunities to improve the overall outcomes of the proposal
• confirm (or ‘ground-truth’) information found in the desk-based assessment, to ensure it is still current and that risk/opportunity areas are correctly mapped
• identify where further information is required

Two main information sources should be used during your survey stage are:

• a desk survey of existing data sources
• one or more site surveys

Examples of recommended early engagement include discussions with your local Natural England Advisor where woodland creation proposals occur in close proximity to designated wildlife sites or contain/occur close to areas where wading birds frequently nest and successfully rear young, and/or discussions with your local historic environment/archaeology service to identify historic environment interests.

We also recommend early engagement with the Environment Agency on water issues for example, in areas prone to flood risk or from ground water deficiency, and/or your local authority on local landscape character impacts.

Desk survey: assessing site characteristics

There are many sources of information that can provide evidence on the land in your proposal.

The first check to make is whether the land is partly or wholly identified as protected under international, national or local designations. You can search for protected areas in England using Forestry Commission’s map browser and Land Information Search. Using the Forestry Project checks: constraints page will then provide further information should you identify a designation. Our sensitivity maps for woodland creation will also provide a good indication of whether there are likely to be sensitivities on the site that may need to be addressed in the design of the woodland.

You can also search for land designations on Defra’s interactive MAGIC map application. Appendix 4 lists further data sources by category and Appendix 5 provides links and further detail on some of these sources.

The desk survey should consider the following site characteristics and establish whether further survey work is needed.

Site characteristics: landscape

Begin by reading Section 6 of the UKFS to understand more about the requirements and guidelines on landscape context and forest design principles. These will help you consider how the site’s landscape context and characteristics will shape your proposal.

Consider the landscape in which your project sits by reviewing the relevant Landscape Character Assessment and National Character Area (NCA) profile, and finding out if there are any other designations such as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), National Parks, World Heritage Sites, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) or priority habitats on, or adjacent, to the site. You will need to choose appropriate species, forest structure and size to ensure that the new woodland will fit into its landscape.

Woodlands and forests should be holistically designed with an approach that integrates management objectives with all features present on the site, as well as the context of the site within the wider landscape. Opportunities should be explored to enhance all existing features and avoid damage.

The terms ‘landscape’ and ‘visual’ do not mean the same thing. The landscape resource includes natural and cultural features such as watercourses, habitats, flora and fauna, land use, landform, existing land cover, and heritage features. In contrast, visual and aesthetic features include site visibility, views and viewpoints, sounds, patterns, colour and form.

Site characteristics: physical information

Get to know your site by assessing the soils, prevailing climate, aspect and altitude.

National soil maps are available from the Magic Map and UK Soil Observatory digital platforms. However, national scale maps often do not represent the variability across a site nor the detailed characteristics of the soils, so it is strongly recommended that you carry out or commission a soil survey to help identify appropriate species and establishment methods (for example ground preparation and weed control).

This more detailed information can be used with Forest Research’s Ecological Site Classification (ESC) decision support system to help inform these decisions.

Your ground preparation method(s) must be based on soil type and individual site requirements. Ground disturbance must be kept to the minimum required to ensure successful establishment and must avoid the unnecessary release of soil carbon.

The environmental impacts of your proposal, from establishment (including your chosen ground preparation method(s)) to subsequent forest operations (including harvesting), must be considered during the planning and design process. Read Operations note 53 on cultivation and UKFS compliance for application in England.

Site characteristics: vulnerability to the impacts of climate change/threats to your new woodland

Consider the pressures of climate change and read our advice on Managing England’s woodlands in a climate emergency. You should access up-to-date information on climate projections for your area and consider how this will affect the suitability of the species you propose to plant.

The ESC tool includes climate projections which will help inform your decisions, while the same webpage provides guidance on suitable species mixtures as ‘Forest Development Types’ under both current and future climates. It may also be helpful to use the Climate Matching Tool to understand which locations currently experience a climate that is consistent with future climate projections for your site.

You should also consider that woodland which is diverse in species and age will be more resilient to climate change and extreme weather events. A full range of actions to consider to make your woodland resilient to the future climate is provided in the UKFS practice guide on Adapting forest and woodland management to the changing climate.

Wildfire events are predicted to increase in frequency in the UK due to increased land use pressure and climate change. Read the Wildfire resilience practice guide, which supports the UKFS by setting out good practice for building wildfire resilience into forest management planning.

Exposure or wind hazard that growing trees will be subject to should be considered in the design of a new woodland and how it will be managed. Wind hazard is expressed as a site’s ‘DAMS’ score (Detailed Aspect Method of Scoring). The DAMS score for your planting site can be accessed from forest maps or the on-line version of ForestGALES. If the site objective includes productive conifers, more detailed design and management options should be evaluated through accessing the latest version of ForestGALES, to ensure that the stand will not be vulnerable to damage subject to the DAMS score of the site.

Site characteristics: threats to your new woodland

Young trees can be outcompeted by vegetation or browsed out by deer, livestock, rabbits, hares, and voles. Think about which browsing animals are already present on site and which ones might be attracted to your new woodland. This will help you consider the best way of protecting the newly established trees.

You must consider appropriate protection, such as fencing, at the planning stage. Although effective in many situations, tree shelters may not be the most appropriate, effective or sustainable option and their use is optional within grant schemes. Your plan should address the use of plastics and show why the chosen type of tree protection and weed control is necessary or silviculturally beneficial.

If you do intend to use tree shelters, be clear how and when they will be removed and disposed of or recycled, in compliance with waste disposal regulations. You can find more information in Tree protection: the use of tree shelters and guards.

Deer can quickly occupy new woodlands and many sites are likely to need deer management from an early stage. Further guidance on deer is available, or you can contact a Forestry Commission Regional Deer Officer. Maps of deer browsing pressure are also available on the Forestry Commission Land Information System map browser.

If you are planting (or encouraging natural colonisation of) species that are susceptible to grey squirrel damage, consider at this planning stage how you will manage this threat to your new woodland.

You will also need to consider the susceptibility of your proposed species to pests and diseases. Information on the Forest Research website will help you understand the risks presented by pests and diseases, including maps of current distribution.

You can visit the UK Plant Health Information Portal for more information about plant pests and diseases, including risk assessments and information on plant health controls.

Plants for planting, some seed and other plant or forest reproductive materials which are imported from the EU to Great Britain and Northern Ireland are subject to plant health controls. Read what you need to do when some or all plant health controls start to apply to your consignments.

When selecting species and provenance/origin for your new woodland, you should consider where you source your planting stock from, recognising the biosecurity risks of importing plants. Where possible, get your plants from nurseries with clear plant health management standards in place (including, for example, nurseries with Plant Healthy certification or similar, read Plant Healthy Certification Scheme.

We would recommend engaging with nurseries about species and provenance choice early on to help ensure that the planting design can be achieved. The diversity of species (or origins of species) that would be appropriate to establish resilient woodlands may not be available from nurseries today. Therefore, we recommend planning ahead and advising nurseries of your requirements as early as possible.

Site characteristics: historic environment

Check if there are Scheduled Monuments, World Heritage Sites, Registered Parks and Gardens, Registered Battlefields, Listed Buildings or Conservation Areas on or near your site, because they have legal protection. You will also need to consider features recorded on the Historic Environment Record (HER) and assess if they will be adversely affected by woodland creation.

Site characteristics: access and terrain

Think about how the site will be accessed for establishment operations and for future forest operations such as maintenance, felling, timber extraction and haulage. Planning for access in the event of a wildfire or an emergency is also important.

The slope, ground conditions and roughness of the terrain will influence options for machinery and haulage access. When planning access, consider what tracks, rides and forest roads will be required now and in the long-term. Forest roads may require EIA screening, depending on length and sensitivity. Also consider where materials, planting stock, equipment and machinery will be stored and maintained safely.

Access to the site from a public road might be restricted – you can check if there is a local agreed routes map maintained by the Timber Transport Forum. All woodland creation applications greater than 10 hectares will require us to undertake formal consultation with the local planning authority, who may require evidence of planned and forecast haulage operations depending on the scale and nature of the woodland creation project.

Any public rights of way, or land that has open access under the Countryside Rights of Way Act 2000, must be kept open unless a direction is in place to restrict or exclude access.

Consider how existing access could be improved, or new access provided for the public to enjoy, if that is one of your management objectives. If so, consider the terrain and how you will meet minimum access standards.

Site characteristics: biodiversity

The existing value of the site for wildlife must be fully understood. A number of habitats and species are protected under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act 2006. Whilst historic losses and habitat fragmentation have rendered such habitats a scarce resource, the best examples of these habitats and areas that are most important in sustaining populations of key species are protected by the designation of a suite of protected areas: RAMSAR sites, Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), Special Protection Areas (SPAs), Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), Local Nature Reserves (LNRs) and National Nature Reserves (NNRs).

You will need to find out if there are protected species, habitats or areas on or adjacent to your site and assess if they will be adversely affected by woodland creation.

The presence of peat and associated hydrological systems should also be identified. If any part of the site is located on peaty soils as defined by the Natural England peat map (available on the Forestry Commission’s map browser and Land Information Search) or as directed by your Woodland Officer, this has implications for site survey and you will need to follow the Decision support framework for peatland protection, the establishment of new woodland and reestablishment of existing woodland on peatland in England.

If there is evidence (data or survey results) that your site supports important habitats or species, your site is likely to require a survey to fully understand its ecological value. This must be carried out by appropriately qualified professionals at the appropriate time or times of the year, so factor this into your schedule for starting work. Our Operations note 43 provides further information and consideration of priority non-woodland habitats when planning new woodland, and there is also guidance to help inform when an upland breeding wader survey is needed and when woodland creation is likely to be appropriate.

Priority pen habitats and woodland creation: a field guide will help you to identify any existing priority open habitat on the site. Further information on undertaking peat, vegetation and breeding bird surveys is set out in the Natural environment survey and assessment Instructions.

Contact your local Woodland Officer/Woodland Creation Officer early to discuss the need for surveys if you are in doubt.

Site characteristics: water

Water quality, flood resilience and water availability must all be considered when planning a new woodland, as must the impact of establishment and management operations on private water supplies. Water quality can be maintained or enhanced through good woodland design and subsequent management, and through the identification and management of buffer areas. These areas, which will include the riparian zones next to watercourses, are set aside to help buffer any potentially adverse effects from adjacent land management, including commercial forestry. In general, the aim in buffer areas is to establish and maintain a partial cover of riparian woodland comprising species native to the location and soils.

You must always seek advice from the Environment Agency if you propose to create woodland within 8 metres of a main river or flood defences and must obtain the necessary consents.

In areas prone to flooding, woodland creation in relevant upstream water catchments should be considered as a way of mitigating flood risk and improving flood resilience. Where new large woodlands are proposed, the sensitivity of downstream water bodies and wetlands to a reduction in water quantity should be considered. If there are sensitive waterbodies downstream that may be affected by your woodland creation or management actions, advice should be sought from the lead local flood authority and Natural England.

You must identify whether the site is in an acid vulnerable catchment, if so, you will need to follow the steps set out in the Forest Research practice guide on managing forests in acid sensitive water catchments.

If you are designing a large scheme (generally taken as more than 50 hectares) in a catchment at less than good quantitative status, you should consider impacts on water availability. Although trees tend to use more water than some other vegetation types, this varies with forest type and tree species; in some situations woodland water use, particularly for broadleaved species, may be less than other land covers. You should include the Environment Agency amongst your stakeholders in this instance and ask them to consider whether your proposal will have an adverse effect on water availability in the area.

Operations associated with establishing and subsequent management of the woodland could affect both the quality and quantity of water draining from the site. This may have impacts for statutorily protected rivers systems (SACs and SSSIs). The potential for negative impacts due to increased sediment discharge need to be properly considered. See the practice guide on Managing forest operations to protect the water environment for more information.

Site characteristics: other

Utility infrastructure (such as water, gas and electricity) might be present and might impact on the design and subsequent management of your new woodland. Other characteristics that could influence your design and management include other wayleaves, access rights (and any others, such as sporting rights).

Mapping information about features as you uncover them could make it easier to draw up your site appraisal plan.

Site survey: are there any sensitive, site-specific issues that may require extra consideration?

If there are any designations, protected sites or features, indications of peat, priority habitats or species present, historic environment features, or sensitive landscape or visual characteristics that are likely to influence the design of your woodland creation proposal, additional information is likely to be required.

In such cases, your local Forestry Commission Woodland Officer will be able to advise you on how early you should begin discussions with relevant statutory bodies or environmental records centres that have an interest on the site, or on land that is adjacent to it. Key sources of data and information are listed in Appendix 3 and Appendix 4. Keep a record of the source and date of your surveys or searches and where the data is kept, for future reference.

Surveys may be needed for features such as priority habitats, priority species, peat depth, deer and other herbivore presence and potential impact, historic environment surveys and landscape character appraisals. These features might also be identified during stakeholder engagement, which is why it is a good idea to start that as early as possible.

We will not normally expect you to fund surveys simply to look for features of interest. However, if a stakeholder provides enough reason to suggest that a feature may be present and adversely affected by the proposal, you might need to undertake a survey (at your own cost) to establish the likely significance of any effect. You should not undertake any surveys until you have discussed and agreed them with your Woodland Officer.

In an area where creating a new woodland could be highly sensitive, providing stakeholders with additional information could help dialogue and find a way forward. In turn, this will help you prepare a robust and evidence-based proposal.

Surveys should cover both the extent of the area of land with your proposal and any adjacent protected areas or sensitive features that may be affected by the proposal. Site surveys should be undertaken once the initial evidence, maps and survey information have been collated and reviewed. Undertaking a survey may be the only way to confirm the findings of the desk survey or supply missing data or evidence, and will supplement the proposal – for example, you might provide evidence of species growing locally to supplement your Ecological Site Classification (ESC) assessment. See Appendix 5 for further details on ESC.

Habitat and species surveys should be completed at the appropriate time of year, generally between April and September. Surveys undertaken at the wrong time of year may fail to pick up areas or features of interest and could result in environmental damage. Investigations at other times of the year are feasible if additional or supplementary evidence exists to support the investigation (for example, data from local raptor study group members, or a wader survey).

Low risk woodland creation

Areas that are of ‘low risk’ from, or of ‘low sensitivity’ to woodland creation, areas which have few or no known constraints for new woodlands, can be seen on indicative maps, see Forestry Commission map browser and Land Information Search.

The EIA low risk map (2017) and the more recent Forestry Commission woodland creation low sensitivity map each screen out areas with significant sensitivities to tree planting, such as National Parks and SSSIs. Targeting woodland creation to areas of ‘low risk’, or ‘low sensitivity’ means that the significance of any environmental harm is much less likely, and that, usually, only local stakeholders and local environmental records need to be engaged.

We encourage you to use these low risk/sensitivity maps to make the EIA screening process easier and quicker. However, you must still gather on-site walk over survey information to validate the desk checks you undertake, and make particular use of local information, and then analyse these to make a robust proposal for your new woodland. These sensitivity maps are indicative and will change over time as new environmental data is gathered and environmental policy changes. See Forestry Commission’s sensitivity maps for woodland creation.

When interpreting EIA low risk or woodland creation sensitivity maps, consider the following:

• sensitivity maps were developed primarily to identify sensitivity to large scale woodland creation
• they do not indicate a ‘green light’ for woodland creation within low risk or low sensitivity areas, or a ‘red light’ for woodland creation outside those areas
• national maps often omit small-scale or local sensitivities, such as Local Wildlife Sites (LWS), a collective term for sites selected on the basis of their county or regional biological (or geological) significance (LWSs may be referred to locally as County Wildlife Sites, Sites of Nature Conservation Importance, Sites of Interest for Nature Conservation etc.), important areas of priority habitat not recorded on national datasets, and non-designated heritage assets. You will still need to check for evidence of their presence
• even if your proposal is in a low risk or low sensitivity area, you will still need to gather and assess site-specific evidence to make decisions about your woodland creation plan
• you should also consider sensitivities that are near to your proposal area boundary and which will still require stakeholder engagement even where your proposal itself is within a low risk or low sensitivity area

UKFS forest design principles

Applying the 7 UKFS design principles will help you design your new woodland well. It is helpful to become familiar with these and think about them at the survey stage, when you are getting to know the characteristics of your site. Having these principles as a framework for your scoping, analysis and synthesis of site information will help you to produce a UKFS-compliant and well-considered woodland creation design more easily.

Spirit of place: what makes a place locally distinctive?

Spirit of place describes the combination of unique, distinctive and cherished aspects of a place that might be intangible. It is important to identify what makes a place special or unique early in the design process, and to consider how your proposal can conserve these qualities, rather than detract from them.

Unity: how the woodland fits and functions in the landscape

Unity is achieved when all parts of your design contribute harmoniously to the whole, and the elements fit and function well together. It is about ensuring the new woodland integrates with the surrounding landscape, fitting in with the defining local character in a balanced and positive way, looking as though it belongs in the landscape. Woodland creation design needs to respond to the prevailing shapes and patterns in the landscape to achieve unity and visual integration.

Scale: the relative size of the woodland and its components

Scale is an important visual factor in fitting new woodland into the landscape. The scale of the proposed woodland should reflect the scale of the surrounding landscape. For example, hilltops and higher slopes with open views present a much larger scale of landscape than the intimacy of restricted views on lower slopes, in valleys and close to settlements. Smaller scale elements are better located in valley bottoms and along woodland edges. Scale also applies to the elements within the woodland, such as species compartments and open space.

Shape

Shape is a powerful factor that has a major influence on how woodland can be designed to fit and enhance the landscape by using shapes that integrate well into the existing landscape. This principle applies to shapes experienced by the viewer both at a landscape scale and at the detail scale, including edge character and planting layouts. Public preference studies show that shape is one of the most important aspects of a forest and woodland design, with organic, naturalistic shapes being significantly preferred over geometric shapes.

Diversity

Diversity refers to the number and variety of elements in a design. This is an important factor in woodland creation design. Public preference research shows that diverse landscapes are usually more visually and perceptually appealing places, rich in biodiversity, and are often not only more interesting to look at, but rich in the sound of birdsong, for example. A landscape character appraisal will help identify the existing degree of diversity.

Diversity has many benefits for forest and woodland habitats. It also provides resilience in the face of climate change. Diverse and graded woodland edges, together with species mixes, will create visual and ecological diversity. Other landscape elements such as water, wetland, rocky outcrops and open spaces contribute to woodland diversity, and should be emphasised.

Landform

Landform, or topography, is the is the dominant landscape influence on woodland creation design in upland areas with steep topography. This type of proposal may need to respond to the visual forces flowing down the main spurs and ridges and up the hollows and valleys, in order to assist with landscape integration. Natural forests and other vegetation patterns tend to reflect the underlying landform. For example, upper treelines are lower on exposed ridges and higher in sheltered valleys. These patterns should be integrated with new woodland.

Pattern of enclosure

Pattern of enclosure has historic and cultural value and is a cherished and distinctive characteristic in the English countryside. The field pattern, hedges, walls and tree lines define field boundaries in most of the lowlands and upland fringes of England. Often, the influence of enclosure patterns and landform blend together but sometimes the pattern of enclosure may be the dominant influence on design, rather than landform. This is often the case in lowland areas. In these circumstances, tree planting can reinforce the pattern, especially where hedges and trees have been lost. The layout and proportion of new woodland can be designed to reflect and add to the established pattern.

Next: Section 3: Developing your woodland creation plan.