Tree Health Pilot
The Tree Health Pilot (THP) scheme is testing different ways of slowing the spread of pests and diseases affecting trees in England. It expands on support available through the Countryside Stewardship Woodland Tree Health grant. The THP supports owners and managers of trees in woodland or trees outside woodland to deal with tree health issues. Funding from the pilot can go towards a range of measures including: felling and treating diseased or infested trees and necessary infrastructure improvements; restocking with new trees and capital items to assist this; maintenance of newly planted trees biosecurity items. There are grants available for: larch trees with Phytophthora ramorum; spruce trees with or at risk of Ips typographus (eight-toothed spruce bark beetle); sweet chestnut trees with Phytophthora ramorum or sweet chestnut blight; oak trees with oak processionary moth (OPM); ash trees with ash dieback. The Tree Health Pilot guidance on GOV.UK sets out the aims of the pilot in detail including eligibility and application details. The results of the pilot will help develop the future funding policy for tree health schemes. This will be rolled out through our environmental land management (ELM) schemes when the pilot ends.
- Opening date: (Midnight)
- Closing date: (Midnight)
Contents
Summary
Grants for larch, spruce and sweet chestnut: These grants will help cover the costs of felling operations (including temporary infrastructure improvements or hiring access aid equipment), chemical killing and permanent infrastructure improvements such as building roads, tracks and gates.
Local authority grants for oak trees affected by Oak Processionary Moth (OPM): This grant supports a local authority to work with local stakeholders to understand and manage the risks and hazards of oak processionary moth (OPM), and to raise public awareness through communications and engagement.
Grants for ash with ash dieback: This grant will help pay for some of the costs of managing dangerous ash trees with ash dieback that aregrowing along roadsides and public rights of way, including the costs associated with traffic management and road closures, surveys, restocking and maintenance, but not the direct felling costs.
Grants for restocking trees: This grant is available to anyone wishing to restock their land with trees after felling them due to pests and diseases.
Tree health advice package: This grant is available to land managers issues with a SPHN within the pilot’s target areas. It aims to build land managers knowledge and awareness of tree health issues, biosecurity and woodland management. The grant includes funding for forestry/land agent advice to assist with a creating biosecurity plan, and biosecurity training. This advice package improves land managers’ ability to identify and deal with tree health issues, including responding to SPHNs.
Eligibility
General eligibility The THP scheme is open to people in certain regions of England who manage specific trees or woodlands infected by specific pests and diseases.
To take part in the pilot scheme, the trees or woodlands you, or your group (if relevant), manage must have one or more of the following:
larch trees with Phytophthora ramorum
spruce with a statutory plant health notice (SPHN) for Ips typographus (eight-toothed spruce bark beetle) or that are growing in the proactive spruce removal area
sweet chestnut trees with Phytophthora ramorum or sweet chestnut blight
oak trees with oak processionary moth (OPM) in the established area
ash trees with ash dieback
The trees or woodlands must be in one of these regions of England (or include spruce with a SPHN for Ipstypographus):
North West
West Midlands
South East
London
If you’re not sure which region your trees or woodlands are in, check the Area and Woodland Officer boundaries map or contact your area office.
Each grant has specific eligibility requirements as outlined on GOV.UK here.
General grant requirements
Your grant application must have a minimum funding value of £500. Check your eligibility for each grant and the payment rates in the relevant guidance.
Do not spend money on any pilot activities before you have signed a grant agreement. If you do the work before the agreement is signed, you will lose the opportunity to get a grant.
If you already get other funding
If you get funding from other agri-environment or woodland schemes, you can still take part in the THP scheme.
The activities for the THP scheme must be different to the activities you’re getting funding for. You cannot get paid twice for the same work or activities.
Objectives
The main objectives of the Tree Health Pilot (THP) are to successfully expand on the limited support available through the existing Countryside Stewardship Woodland Tree Health grants, to gather vital knowledge to support a nationwide Tree Health grants scheme, and to ultimately increase funding accessibility to as many types of trees, land, and woodland owners/managers as possible.
The THP is designed to help bolster the health and sustainability of our trees, woodlands and forests and support those who manage these important areas. By helping eradicate and manage pests and diseases, thriving treescapes can provide a range of environmental and economic benefits to us all.
The pilot was launched in August 2021 in preparation for the roll out of the new Tree Health Scheme. The pilot will build on three-years’ worth of co-design with end-users, and test and refine novel elements of the full scheme. It does this by:
Piloting the interventions and assumptions generated from previous co-design in the ‘real world’ through grants, advice, and guidance
Evaluating the success of these policy interventions through a monitoring and evaluation framework that will feed into the design of the full scheme
The pilot is testing two main interventions:
Felling and treatment to slow the spread of pests and diseases and protect the wider treescape (expanding and building on the scope of the CS Woodland TH Improvement offers)
Restocking for resilience to enable treescape recovery (expanding and building on the scope of the CS Woodland TH Restoration offers)
Dates
The pilot scheme was initially intended as a 3-year scheme (August 2021 – August 2024). However, it has been extended until the launch of the full national wide Tree Health grant scheme, ensuring there is no gap in support.
The Forestry Commission will contact you within 2 to 6 weeks of receiving your completed application form. This is to tell you whether your application was successful and the amount of funding you can claim.
If your application is successful, the Forestry Commission will send you an agreement offer and enclose a declaration. You must sign and return the grant offer and terms and conditions by email or post by the date requested, to accept the grant offer.
How to apply
If you want to apply to the THP scheme as an individual or group, you first need to fill in an expression of interest form. There is a separate expression of interest form for ash dieback and an application form for the tree health advice package.
A Forestry Commission representative will contact you within 3 weeks of receiving your expression of interest form by email. They’ll consider whether you’re eligible for the THP scheme. If you’re likely to qualify for a grant, they’ll arrange a pre-assessment site visit. Based on the initial assessment and site visit, the Forestry Commission will advise you if you should submit a full application.
If you want to make a full application for the Tree Health Pilot, after your initial assessment and site visit, the Forestry Commission will send an application form to fill in.
For more information, read the guidance on how to apply for the tree health pilot scheme.
Supporting information
Read the THP scheme guidance documents to check what the grants cover, eligibility for each grant, payment rates and how to apply.
Application Forms