Forestry Commission Set to Launch England Woodland Creation Offer
A major new multi-million pound tree planting grant will soon be available, providing greater financial incentives for England’s landowners and farmers to plant and manage trees.
Landowners and farmers will be offered greater financial incentives to plant and mange trees through the new England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO). The scheme will support a range of woodland types and sizes, including through natural colonisation, and especially where their location and design will provide public benefits.
The scheme will support the creation of over 10,000 hectares of new woodland over its lifetime. The grant will focus funding predominantly on the establishment of native broadleaf woodlands at a large scale, but also supporting well-designed majority conifer and mixed woodlands.
EWCO will cover capital costs. This will be at a 100% intervention rate (up to a per hectare cap). It will also provide:
- Annual maintenance payments for 10 years.
- Payments towards recreational infrastructure such as paths and picnic benches.
- Payments towards forest roads and tracks.
- Stackable additional contributions that recognise the public benefits that well-designed woodland created in the right locations will generate.
England’s farmers and landowners will be encouraged to apply.
The scheme is due to open in late spring, at which point further details of the application process will be provided.
