Leading forester, John Hetherington, is welcoming the reeopening of the Small Woodland Grant Scheme (SWGS) by the Forest Service for Northern Ireland.
This grant will support landowners to create new native woodland that will provide a range of ecosystem services and benefits for people including contributing to mitigating the impacts of climate change.
The Premier Woodlands’ managing director commented: “There has been an increase in the number staff made available by Forest Service to administer the various woodland and forestry schemes.
“We also know that there has been a relatively small uptake for the 2024 Forest Expansion Scheme. Given these circumstances, the staffing is now in place to allow for the opening of the SWGS.”
The closing date for applications to be received is Monday, January 20, 2025 and all applications for SWGS must be made online.
Small Woodland Grant Scheme
The scheme provides up to £6,425/ha for establishment costs and annual premia over a 10-year period. The scheme also provides support for new stock fencing, where required, to protect newly planted woodlands from livestock.
The Premier Woodlands’ representative is hopeful that Forest Service will be in a position to issue letters-of-offer shortly after applications are submitted.
“I am calling on Forest Service to green light the maximum number of applications that it can accept for SWGS over the coming weeks,” Hetherington commented.
“There is ample funding available to make this a reality. Assuming that all offers of grant aid can be issued and verified by the end of February, this would enable forestry development companies like Premier Woodlands to get on with the establishment work in-hand during the remainder of the 2024/2025 planting seasons.
“If approvals are delayed until later in the spring of next year, the window of opportunity to get actual tree planting work carried out becomes extremely small indeed.”
Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Minister, Andrew Muir said: “I am pleased to announce that the Small Woodland Grant Scheme is open for applications through DAERA’s online services.
“This scheme supports landowners to incorporate new native woodlands and enhance the characteristics of their holdings. Through the scheme, farmers and other land owners can contribute to increasing the area of forests and woodlands in the forthcoming planting season.
“Increasing the area of forests and woodlands is a key focus for the department. Not only is planting new woodlands widely recognised as having an important role in mitigating the impacts of climate change and helping us meet our net zero targets, but it also enhances the landscape and environment, creates new habitats and supports farm business sustainability,” the minister added.
He explained that woodland creation, and in particular riparian woodland, is an important nature-based solution that can protect and improve our water quality and help address the problems at Lough Neagh.
Forestry
The anticipated opening of the 2024/2025 SWGS measure will follow-on from the recent confirmation that the Forestry Expansion Scheme (FES) is to continue for two consecutive planting seasons – 2024/2025 and 2025/2026.
“These developments will give a degree of certainty for the private woodland sector in Northern Ireland, looking ahead,” John Hetherington continued.
“However, a number of important issues remain to be confirmed on the part of Forest Service. Most importantly, these include the unit-cost rates of planting grants that are made available to scheme applicants.
“These unit-costs have not been reviewed since the official opening of the scheme seven years ago.
“In the meantime, inflation and more than significant increases in all the costs associated with field work of any kind have greatly eroded the value of these unit-costs within the various woodland and forestry schemes.
“These measures were designed to cover all the direct costs associated with the development of new woodlands; this is no longer the case,” Hetherington concluded.
