Rural Payments and Services

For recent changes to this guidance, please see the bottom of the page.

This is for the removal of gorse or bracken to clear land ahead of tree planting to create new woodland. An application for gorse removal or bracken control must be made in combination with a submission for Woodland Creation.

These operation are available in conjunction with all woodland creation options.

Eligible land:

• areas of land with significant contiguous gorse, agreed by the local conservancy, which is required to be removed to provide tree planting sites for new woodland creation
• A minimum of two hectares of contiguous bracken requiring treatment must be present

Gorse

The area of gorse removal cannot exceed the area of initial planting for woodland creation.

Gorse removal work must be done between the beginning of August and the end of February.

Please note that the gorse removal capital item must be claimed in the same claim year as the initial planting capital item and they must be claimed together on the same claim form.

Removal of gorse can be carried out by:

• mechanical treatment – gorse should be controlled using machines with appropriate fittings to cut or flail plants as low as possible to the ground to reduce regrowth
• manual treatment – gorse should be controlled by using hand, chain or clearing saws and plants should be cut as low as possible to the ground to reduce regrowth

Payment for gorse removal will be made against the total net area of gorse removed.

• you must record the area designated for treatment on a map and provide details of the clearance operation in the Woodland Creation Operational Plan
• the map must include details of the extent and percentage cover of the gorse to evidence the net area of hectares you will be claiming grant on

Bracken

Operations to clear bracken using the ‘gorse removal’ capital item should be completed prior to planting the area that is being cleared. Follow up manual treatments should be done after planting to ensure bracken is controlled.

Please note that if you are applying for bracken control using the ‘gorse removal’ capital item, then the bracken control must be claimed in the same claim year as the initial planting capital item and they must be claimed together on the same claim form.

You must not treat bracken by mechanical means within identified sensitive areas or buffer zones, however, manual means can be employed but this must be clearly delineated on your map.

Treatment of bracken can be carried out by:

• mechanical treatment – bracken should be controlled using machines with appropriate fittings to cut, roll, or flail. Control must be undertaken at least twice during the growing season
• manual treatment – bracken should be whipped early in the growing season to sever the tender young bracken fronds before they are hardened off. The fronds may be cut cleanly by hand using light whips, made from slender hardwood stems, or thin metal rods. Control must be undertaken at least twice during the growing season

Your application and proposed work must comply with the UK Forestry Standard.

Please note: if you receive a contract offer for funding this activity, your schedule of works will identify this as Gorse removal. It will not state bracken control even if it is bracken that you are controlling. An additional FGS condition will be added by Scottish Forestry to clarify this.