This is a brand new opportunity to plant trees that suit your needs, benefit your land and bring many wider benefits to the region.
Working as part of England’s Community Forests, the Forest of Avon Trust has secured Defra funding for a major new grant for tree and woodland planting and aftercare, with innovative, and in parts unprecedented, flexibility, to meet up to 100% of planting and supporting infrastructure costs with ongoing maintenance.
The grant is very flexible and supports a wide range of planting including:
- Small and large scale woodlands, rural and urban
- Wood pasture
- Community orchards
- Hedgerows and shrub belts (and with field trees)
- Urban and parkland planting of feathered/standards
- Natural regeneration
- Planting for timber
The grant is intended to cover a wide range of costs and support wider community and public access benefits where possible. They can discuss these options with you and look at what will work with your project
- Planning and project management
- Exploratory checks, surveys and reports
- Supplies and equipment eg trees, tree-guards, fencing, mulch mats
- Public access, signage and interpretation
- Site infrastructure – access, egress, seating, structures
- Community engagement activity and communications
Using their local knowledge and partner working they can provide the level of support you need to get the trees planted and cared for in the right place.
They have recently released the Forest of Avon Plan through the West of England Nature Partnership which informs tree planting for the West of England.
If you wish to explore options, they will visit your land, advise on options, work with partners to seek exploratory checks and approvals. They will also undertake the Forestry Commission/Environmental Impact Assessment for you.
To find out more, do get in touch with them so they can find out more about your ideas, explain more about the fund and answer any questions.
Call 0117 963 3383 or email: Jack.mccrickard@forestofavontrust.org (Bristol and South Gloucestershire)
Anna.Brunton@forestofavontrust.org (B&NES and North Somerset)
Please note that B&NES has an online tool to help plan where woodlands might be planted in the district: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/afafb2517d16499b8efd534d52bed4b8