Summary
At Scottish Forestry we support and promote the planting of trees to establish woodlands.
This guidance describes what you need to do when applying for grant support.
- to create a new woodland
- to comply with the Forestry (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 for afforestation
- when you are seeking Scottish Forestry approval for a woodland compensatory planting scheme (required as a condition of a planning permission)
What scale of proposal do we support?
Through the Forestry Grant Scheme we support the creation of:
- native woodlands over 0.25 hectares
- productive woodlands over 2 hectares
All woodlands must be at least 15 metres wide to be eligible.
We do not support the planting of individual trees.
Amendments to guidance
This guidance document and the woodland creation application process has been refined and developed as a result of the James Mackinnon CBE report.
This was commissioned by Scottish Government in 2016.
Analysis of Current Arrangements for the Consideration and Approval of Forestry Planting Proposals (Scottish Government website).
The most significant amendment has been to highlight the importance of stakeholder engagement.
This helps ensure that all constraints are identified and considered, prior to committing to the submitted woodland design.
Identifying and protecting key natural and cultural heritage assets is a high priority. This should be progressed through a process of due diligence that is recorded and evidenced in an Issues Log.
Issues log template
Application guidance - supporting information
You should also read our supporting information.
This document should be used in conjunction with the Woodland Creation Applicant’s guide.
It provides guidance on the collection of relevant information for investigations of land (on which your new woodland is to be created).
Application guidance - supporting information
