Scottish Government

The aim of this Option

This Option aims to provide support for the creation of a Forest Plan that sets out the long term management of the woodland over a period of 10-20 years.

Rates of Support

This is a Standard Cost Capital grant that will be paid upon approval of a completed Forest Plan.

The grant payment rates for preparing the Plan are shown on the Woodland Improvement Grant page.

Eligibility criteria

• You must own or lease the land
• If you are a tenant or contractual licensee, you must discuss the proposed application with your landlord to make sure it does not break the conditions of your tenancy or licence, and submit a Landlord Notification Form with your Proposal.
• If you have a tenancy or a licence with less than five years to run you must complete a Landlord Declaration form and ask your Landlord or the landowner to sign the declaration on that form.

To help you prepare the Forest Plan, Forestry Commission Scotland provides Technical Guidance.

Details you need to provide with your Proposal

Before your Proposal reaches the "Proposal Commit" stage you must provide:

• A concept map to illustrate the key issues and actions that you will address in the Forest Plan
• A Forestry Outcome Plan. This will ask you to confirm that you have provided the concept map

Claims and Inspections

Once you have received an approved Forest Plan from FCS, then you should submit a capital claim.

You cannot make a claim for an area that exceeds that agreed in your contract. You must claim for the areas as detailed in your Schedule of Works, e.g. you cannot make an interim claim for part of the area shown on a single line of your Schedule of Works

For details of the procedure for submitting claims and the period within which you must do this please see the overview for Standard Cost and Actual cost Capital Payments

We will inspect the completed work to ensure that this meets the agreed Forest Plan and the specification of agreed operations.

List of links to relevant technical guidance

The UK Forestry Standard

Deer Commission for Scotland Best Practice Guidance

Joint Agency Fencing Guidance

FCS Guidance 'Management Plans for Semi-Natural Woodlands'

FCS Guidance 'Deer Impact Reduction'

FCS Guidance 'Long Term Forest Planning'

FC Forest Practice Guide ' Restoration of Native Woodland on Ancient Woodland Sites'

FC Forest Practice Guides to the Management of Semi- Natural Woodlands

Species Action Notes for Capercaillie, Black Grouse and Red Squirrel

Habitat management for Black Grouse

Habitat management for Capercaillie