New £6m fund to support regional forest projects

A £6m fund has been announced to help local authorities and environmental charities expand woodland planting on a regional and national scale.

The Trees Call to Action Fund will provide grants of £250,000 to £500,000 for up to 24 projects across England.

The money is being made available to help fund new regional and national partnerships of charities, local authorities and others who can turn the government’s tree planting ambitions into reality.

See also: Productive farms being sold to investors for tree planting

While some woodland creation projects will be based in urban areas or on land already owned by local authorities, these partnerships will also want to engage with private landowners and farmers and may involve partners buying land on which to plant trees.

Great Northumberland Forest

The government has pointed to the example of Great Northumberland Forest partnerships, which have the combined target of planting up to one million trees across 500ha of land in Northumberland between 2020 and 2024.

Forestry England has already started planting Rushy Knowe, a new 145ha woodland on the shore of Kielder Water, and earlier this year announced the purchase of 100ha of land at Monkridge, West Woodburn, to create a second new public forest.

However, the Great Northumberland Forest programme also involves schemes led by private landowners.

For example, one farmer has planted 12,000 trees alongside the River Wansbeck to create a wildlife corridor and prevent farm runoff from entering the watercourse.

Similar initiatives are happening as part of the Forest for Cornwall project, where landowners are being supported through the process of applying for funding to encourage more tree planting.

Potential applicants for the Trees Call to Action Fund can submit expressions of interest from 3 to 16 November.

The fund will not provide financial support for any activities which can be funded from other Defra and Forestry Commission grants.