Woodland improvement grant scheme extended – apply now!

The Woodfuel Woodland Improvement Grant (WIG) has been extended and is open for applications – but only until the end of September this year. If you have any roads schemes in mind get your applications in as soon as possible.

The Woodfuel WIG funds access projects which will enable the sustainable extraction of timber from woodland where it is currently inaccessible.

It can also pay for professional support measuring and marketing timber from under-managed compartments.

The current grant covers up to 60% of the cost of work and can be used to fund development on every type of forest road, from quad bike tracks to haul roads for 44 tonne timber wagons, and everything in between. 

Funded work could include the installation of new roads, loading bays or entrance gates, or repairs to faults along access routes, such as damaged bridges and drainage repair.

The timescale for the application process is as follows:

• End of September 2014 – All grant applications must be submitted
• End of December 2014 – Contracts must be signed
• End of September 2015 – All work must be completed and claimed for

Previous grants handed out include £9,600 to improve access roads to a woodland area; £7,500 for the construction of long haul extraction tracks, loading bays and bridge repairs; and £50,000 for the creation of access tracks to a previously unmanageable area of land.

Click here to read about these and other grants awarded by the Woodfuel WIG scheme.

A series of videos have also been produced to help potential applicants - the first of these can be found here.

To find out more about getting a Woodfuel Woodland Improvement Grant, contact Mike Furness on 01494 568970 / mike.furness@ngagesolutions.co.uk.

The grant is delivered by Ngage Solutions across the South East, South West and the county of Cumbria, on behalf of The Forestry Commission.

Plant health - new grant and revised guidance from Forestry Commission

Source: Wikipedia

New support is now being offered by the Forestry Commission through a new Plant Health Woodland Improvement Grant (PH WIG) which brings together a number of previous plant health support mechanisms. 

Additionally the FC will be retaining Woodland Regeneration Grant (WRG) where the restocking is following defined Plant Health issues. 

The respective new and updated guidance is available via the following links:

Plant Health Woodland Improvement Grant

Woodland Regeneration Grant

Plant Health WIG

The PH WIG brings together elements of the following previous grant support:

• Removing Rhododendron within 3km of Phytophthora ramorum and kernoviae infections (which is mainly affecting south west England, although there is one reported outbreak site in Kent near Ashford).
• Removing P.ramorum infected immature larch paying a site fee to cover the costs of professional help in implementing harvesting plans for P.ramorum infected larch

Source: Wikipedia

This new PH WIG also replaces elements of the previous WIG for removal of recently planted ash on Chalara fraxinea infected sites.

This grant is designed to cover the infections mentioned above and any subsequent plant health disease the Forestry Commission decides requires action that can be funded through EWGS.



Plant Health WRG

Due to the significant uptake of WRG in previous years and the need to maintain funding for other, higher priority, grant types, funding for WRG is
now limited to the 14/15 and 15/16 years to restocking sites related to plant health issues only. The revised guidance sets out: 

Source: Wikipedia

• Revised eligibility requirements for WRG in relation to Plant Health payment rates and available claim years
• Extension of the Plant Health related supplements to include Chalara infected sites