Rural Payments and Services

This item is available for enrichment planting within existing denuded native woodlands and their associated woodland internal open ground. Planting can be on discrete areas of up to 0.25 hectares in size. Such woodland enrichment will not equate to more than 25 per cent of the individual woodland block.

The item is eligible where its provision meets the objectives of the Woodland Improvement Grant – Habitats and Species or the Woodland Improvement Grant – Woods In and Around Towns options and must be detailed on your application map.

This standard cost includes:

• the individual tree protection and support, that is: tree shelter and treated softwood or hardwood stake
• the planting, including labour and cost of tree
• the beating-up, weeding, fertilising and supervision required until the tree or shrub 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.

The top of the tree shelter should be of rounded or folded design to reduce the risk of damage to the emerging tree. The tree shelter must be pushed into the ground to reduce the likelihood of damage by voles. The length of tree shelter required is dependent upon the type of browsing that is likely to occur.

In carrying out the planting operations, we require you choose species and stocking levels which are appropriate to the site and appropriate to the objectives which your application is designed to meet. 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.

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 and shrubs 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.