Woodland Trust Woodland Creation Guide

This comprehensive guide sets out the Woodland Trust’s approach to woodland creation. It aims to help users create new woods that are well suited to local site characteristics and the landscape context, while embracing the objectives and aspirations of landowners and communities. It is aimed at a broad professional audience and covers woodlands, hedgerows, groups of trees, scrub and individual open grown trees.

The guide covers all stages of the process, including stakeholder consultation and governance, consideration of constraints and local context (including soils, geology, historic features, public access, etc), tree species selection, ecological impact assessment, implementation via planting or natural regeneration, management (including for target wildlife species), monitoring, and wider benefits such as carbon sequestration, water quality, air quality and timber production.