Woodland Creation – Broadleaves

This is an old version of the page

This is an old version of the page

Date published: 30 March, 2015

Date superseded: 2 July, 2015

Table of Contents



The aim of these scheme is to create broadleaved woodlands on land that is suitable for sawn and prime timber and that is accessible for timber transport (including links to suitable public roads).

You must meet all eligibility criteria listed on the Woodland Creation page and:

  • you must comply with the UK Forestry Standard
  • the minimum planting width is 15 metres
  • the minimum block size is two hectares in any one year
  • your application must meet the species composition criteria in the table below

Composition of broadleaved woodland
Item Minimum
(per cent)
Maximum
(per cent)
Minimum stocking density
on the planted area at
year five (per hectare)
Broadleaves suitable for timber production [1] 75 85 Oak and beech: 3100
Sycamore, birch, wild cherry,
sweet chestnut and poplar: 2500
Native broadleaves or shrubs [2] 5 10 1100
Designed open ground [3] 0 10 n/a
[1] Please note that in order to comply with UKFS no more than 75 per cent is permitted for a single species. Intimate mixtures are allowed but the choice of species must meet the requirements of species selection.
[2] Up to 20 per cent of the native broadleaves can be native woody shrubs.
[3] You must refer to the designed open ground guidance on the Forestry Commission Scotland Technical Support page to see how designed open ground will apply to your application. For example additional open ground, in excess of the specified percentage, may be permissible depending on the specifics of the site, but will not be eligible for grant support.

Please note that in order to achieve 100 per cent from the table above you will not be able to select all minimum or all of the maximum values.

Species selection

As an initial first step in determining whether or not the site is climatically suitable, you should view the Forestry Grant Scheme (2014–2020) Site Suitability folder on the Forestry Commission Scotland Map Viewer page.

Any applications that are not shown as being climatically suitable will only be considered if you can clearly demonstrate that the site is suitable for the chosen species of trees, for example where there is localised shelter in an otherwise exposed location.

As per the eligibility criteria of the woodland creation general guidance the tree species must be suitable or very suitable to the site and have the capacity to achieve a minimum average yield class 6 across the application area.