CWD20: Create wood pasture

This action’s aim is to create new wood pasture with a mosaic of scrub, trees and open semi-natural habitats.

The purpose is to provide:

• habitats that offer sources of food and shelter for wildlife, including invertebrates, fungi and birds
• open habitats including grassland and heathland within the wood pasture for grazing livestock
• enhanced landscape character by establishing trees and shrubs and retaining all existing mature and veteran trees

What you must do

Your Natural England adviser will assess your land and work with you to adapt and agree the activities you must do to achieve this action’s aim. All mandatory activities will be set out in your agreement document.

To get paid for this action, you must:

• establish saplings and young trees through natural regeneration or planting
• establish a suitable number of trees at each life stage (sapling, young tree, medium size tree, mature tree) of the same species and form as any existing veteran trees
• keep and manage any open-grown or pollarded trees to extend their longevity
• protect the trees (including any veteran and ancient trees and their rootstocks) from avoidable harm, including from machinery and grazing livestock and pests, such as deer and rabbits
• protect newly planted trees and replace any planted trees that fail to establish
• leave any standing, attached and fallen deadwood in place (any exceptions will be agreed with your Natural England adviser)
• establish and manage an agreed area of native scrub with a variety of different heights, widths, shapes and species
• avoid compaction and poaching around trees

To create and manage the sward, you must:

• ensure it is intact throughout the year, without compacted areas or poaching
• minimise bare ground so the soil is covered by vegetation and is not directly exposed to the elements
• follow a stocking calendar as agreed with your Natural England adviser
• maintain areas of shorter and longer vegetation, either by cutting or grazing with appropriate species, such as traditional cattle breeds
• allow wildflowers, sedges and grasses to flower and set seed in the spring and summer
• allow flower, sedge and grass seed heads to be left undisturbed through the autumn and winter
• maintain a continuous grass cover over historic and archaeological features so bare patches are kept to a minimum

The advice you’re given from Natural England is specific to your land which means (where relevant) you may also need to:

• look after veteran trees, for example by removing young trees which have grown too close to them, or applying wood mulch to the root protection area
• manage existing wet areas, ponds and water features
• maintain the current water regime of any existing water features
• carry out additional management activities to provide benefits to target features, habitats or species as identified in your feasibility study or implementation plan
• restore, protect and maintain any designed landscape or parkland features as agreed with your Natural England adviser

You must not:

• apply any fertilisers or manures
• apply pesticides – you may be able to use herbicides to spot-treat or weed-wipe for the control of injurious weeds, invasive non-native plant species, nettles or other plants if this has been agreed with your Natural England adviser
• pull or burn uncut scrub
• remove stumps of cut trees and shrubs
• burn cut scrub and trees
• plough, harrow, cultivate, reseed, roll or lime, unless agreed with your Natural England adviser
• supplementary feed, except for the use of mineral blocks or other forms of feed for livestock handling or habitat management purposes as agreed by your Natural England adviser
• supplementary feed on historic and archaeological sites
• use feeders, or supplementary feed under or within 5m of tree canopies
• alter the depth, shape or profile and design of existing built water bodies and associated engineering
• plant trees or allow natural regeneration on or near sensitive habitats or features
• carry out any drainage works or modification to existing drainage, unless agreed with your Natural England adviser

When to do it

You must do this action each year of its duration.

Evidence to keep

You must keep evidence to show what you have done to complete this action. If it’s not clear that you have done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) may ask for this evidence. You must supply the evidence if they ask for it.

You must supply the evidence if they ask for it, including:

• photographs
• associated invoices
• field operations at the parcel level