Petra Billings can offer advice and support with applications for Countryside Stewardship grant-funding.
The new government agri-environment grant scheme, Countryside Stewardship, was opened in 2015. It offers grant-funding as follows:
- Capital grants for woodland management plans, woodland creation, tree health measures and also for a range of farmland capital items such as hedge-planting and hedge restoration
- Mid-Tier: 5 year agreements for farmland improvement measures to enhance biodiversity and/or water quality
- Higher tier: 5 year agreements for land management measures for the most environmentally important farmland and/or woodland sites. Woodland improvement funding is available through this route, either as Woodland Improvement Multi-annual support or as Woodland Improvement Capital Grants. The multi-annual grants are paid at a rate of £100 per year per hectare for work which falls under one or more of the following objectives:
- Restoring plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS)
- Enhancing priority habitats for the area
- Enhancing priority species for the area
- Improving resilience to climate change through continuous cover forestry
The application process is competitive. It is based on a point scoring process and has set application windows for the different grants. To find out more, contact Petra.