Countryside Stewardship Woodland Capital Grants 2015

The Forestry Commission is now open for applications for Woodland Capital Grants 2015 (previously referred to as the preliminary woodland grant offer) to plant and manage new woodlands in England as part of the Government’s new £900m Countryside Stewardship scheme.
Countryside Stewardship will help rural businesses improve the countryside environment and the Woodland Capital Grants in 2015 will prioritise support for activity this year to cover:

• Creating and maintaining new woodland for biodiversity and water benefits including flooding;
• Woodland management plans; and
• Tree health

If you are considering applying for any of the available 2015 grants please be advised that you must register on the new Rural Payments system at www.gov.uk/rural-payments as soon as possible. If you have any problems with registering then please contact the Rural Payments Agency on 03000200301. If you are an agent then you will also need to register on the new system in order to help your clients claim rural payments.
Some grants will require a site visit before applications can be accepted, and as the window to apply is relatively short we would urge anyone who is interested to get online to gov.uk as soon as possible to access the guidance available. After reading the guidance potential applicants should consider speaking to the Woodland Officer at their local Area office as soon as possible to understand the scoring system for Woodland Creation and arrange a site visit before final application.

Posted on 18th February 2015