Rural Payments and Services

This item is available only when carried out for landscape purposes where the planting of standard trees meets the objectives of the Woodland Improvement Grant – Habitats and Species or Woodland Improvement Grant – Woods In and Around Towns options and the location of the tree must be detailed on your application map.

Trees to be planted must be standard or half-standard (six to 14 centimetres girth) and should be no greater than four metres high. Trees must comply with BS 3936-1: Nursery stock specification for trees and shrubs.

Trees planted should be of species that are in keeping with the original design or reflect the character of the local landscape respectively. For Designed Landscapes, your application must have a supporting statement that confirms your tree choice from Historic Environment Scotland or Scottish Natural Heritage. For all native trees planted you must provide a nursery suppliers document, submitted with your claim, which states the region of provenance and Master Certificate Number and the total numbers of native trees used.

This standard cost includes:

• the individual tree protection and support, for example, a post, strut, spacer and heavy-duty tie
• the planting, including labour and cost of tree
• the beating-up, weeding, fertilising and supervision required until the tree is established.

The stake must penetrate the ground to a depth of at least 30 centimetres. The stake must be below the lip of the tree shelter but 10 centimetres above the upper tie. Ties must not encircle the tree. You should take care to ensure the lower tie does not ensnare the tree.

If planting the tree within an area accessed by grazing animals then a post and rail fence can be applied for separately.

If you are proposing to plant trees you are advised to discuss your application with those neighbours whose properties might be affected.

Where roadside tree planting is proposed and planting is to be within five metres of the edge of any made-up carriageway, you must provide confirmation, at application stage, that the Local Authority Roads Department does not object to your proposals.

We require that at year five following the date you received your payment, that the trees planted are healthy and in a condition capable of continued growth subject to normal ongoing maintenance operations such as protection from inappropriate grazing by wild or domestic animals. The site maybe inspected by Forestry Commission Scotland at this time.