What the action involves
This action’s aim is to restore existing wood pasture and parkland on sites that support:
- mature and veteran trees
- undisturbed standing, attached and fallen deadwood
- designed landscape and parkland features, such as tree avenues
The purpose is to:
- provide habitat which offers food and shelter for wildlife, including invertebrates, fungi and birds
- provide grazing on open habitats including grassland and heathland for livestock
- benefit the landscape character by establishing trees and retaining mature and veteran trees
- maintain and restore historic, archaeological or designed landscape features in historic parkland
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:
- keep and manage existing open-grown or pollarded trees to extend their longevity
- 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
- protect the trees (including any veteran and ancient trees and their rootstocks) from avoidable harm, including by machinery, grazing livestock and pests, such as deer and rabbits
- leave any standing, attached and fallen deadwood in place (any exceptions will be agreed with your Natural England adviser)
- 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 the existing veteran trees
- establish saplings and young trees through natural regeneration or planting
- protect newly planted trees and replace any planted trees that fail to establish
- 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 restore 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 or cutting regime (or a combination of both) agreed with your Natural England adviser
- maintain areas of shorter and longer vegetation, either by cutting or grazing with appropriate species, such as traditional breeds of cattle
- 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 during the autumn and winter
- maintain a continuous grass cover over historic and archaeological features so bare patches are kept to a minimum
- restore, protect and maintain any designed landscape or parkland features as agreed with your Natural England adviser
The advice you’re given from Natural England is specific to your land which means (where relevant) you may also need to:
- restore and protect historic and archaeological features and carry out maintenance works and minor repairs on structural historic or archaeological features on a ‘like for like’ basis to keep the character of the feature in its local setting
- restore and protect historic features, such as parkland fences, railings or historic boundaries with an undisturbed buffer adjacent to the edge of the feature – do not cultivate or allow scrub to develop within the buffer
- manage existing wet areas, ponds and water features
- maintain the current water regime of any existing historic 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
You must not:
- apply 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 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, 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, including:
- photographs
- associated invoices
- land parcel field records
Where you can do it
You can do this action on wood pasture and parkland (or infilled wood pasture and parkland). This includes recreational parkland where it forms part of the farmed environment. To use this action, you must avoid negative impacts on existing historic, archaeological, environmental or landscape features.
You can find wood pasture and parkland on the BAP Priority Habitat map layer on Magic or have the eligible area confirmed by your adviser.
You can only do this action if you have an implementation plan or feasibility study agreed with Natural England.
Eligible land
You can do this action on land that’s:
- an eligible land type
- registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
- declared with a land use code which is compatible with the eligible land cover
Available area
Total or part of the available area in the land parcel.
Rotational or static
This action is static. This means you must do it at the same location each year of this action’s duration.
Consents and permissions
To apply for this action, you’ll need:
- to agree an implementation plan or feasibility study with your Natural England adviser
- to share your implementation plan or feasibility study with your local Forestry Commission woodland officer so they can advise if a forestry environmental impact assessment (EIA) is required
- Scheduled Monument Consent from Historic England for any work on scheduled monuments
- advice from Historic England for grade 1 or grade 2* historic parks
- advice from the Gardens Trust for registered parks below grade 2
- consent from Natural England for any activity on land designated as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI)
You may also need:
- to get advice from your Natural England adviser if you have other archaeological or historic features on your agreement land
- a forestry EIA from the Forestry Commission – read the guidance on forestry EIAs for more information
- a screening decision under the agricultural EIA Regulations from Natural England
- to apply for a felling licence from the Forestry Commission to carry out some activities in this action
- to get a wildlife licence from Natural England if your activities affect a protected species or their habitat
All archaeological and historic features (including scheduled monuments) are identified in your Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (HEFER).
If you’re a tenant, it’s your responsibility to check whether your tenancy agreement allows you to complete what’s required in the actions you choose. You may need your landlord’s consent.
Capital grants that support it
If you need to complete an implementation plan or a feasibility study before you apply, you can apply for funding through capital grants plans funding.
You can also apply for capital items to help you achieve the action’s aims. Your Natural England adviser will discuss eligible capital items with you.
