The next step of the pilot project is to help woodland owners identified in the focus areas use and understand the myForest Woodland Assessor and the benefits it can bring to the woodland and woodland owner.

Some grant schemes ask land managers to have an approved management plan in place prior to making an application. Working across the wider Northeast and Yorkshire area, Northwoods currently hosts the Northwoods Innovation Programme funded by the Forestry Commission through the Woods into Management Forestry Innovation Funds (WiMFIF), part of the UK Government's Nature for Climate Fund. The Northwoods Innovation Programme has been established to accelerate innovative approaches and technology which improve the number and quality of woodlands in active management. As part of the Innovation Programme, Northwoods organises and hosts a wide range of events, including webinars and in person demonstration events, that communicate innovative ideas and tools to stakeholders that own or are involved in the management of woodlands. Currently there are three live Forest Lab projects covering resilience, wildfire and tree growth, with plans to offer more in the future: Finally, further support and advice is provided to woodland owners by helping them evaluate their woodland against the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) using the myForest Woodland Assessor developed by the Sylva Foundation with the aim to produce a UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) compliant Woodland Management Plan. If you choose to appoint an agent to develop your woodland management plan you must sign a form to give an agent authority to act for you when dealing with the Forestry Commission. You can submit this Forestry Commission agent authority form as part of your application for funding.The two-year project is supported by a core partnership with the Forestry Commission and the Woodland Trust, while the approach being taken is to work closely with practitioners to co-design the tools and services of the new platform. Features are an important part of any forest creation or management plan, ensuring each feature is mapped accurately is vital to developing an effective maps and plans which are appropriate for any range of desired activities. Produce a map – they’re an excellent way to communicate information to support your management plan. Use several maps to show a variety of topics or themes affecting your woodland. You must ensure that each compartment you show on the map is reflected in the Inventory of the Plan of Operations. You can create a map by:

Firstly, the Focus Area Pilot is developing a methodology that uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyse hurdles (such as slope, access, and proximity to markets) to the active management of woodlands. The methodology uses the Forestry Commission’s Managed Woodland Headline Performance Indicator dataset to identify unmanaged woodlands. Sylva Foundation and Forest Research are working in partnership to deliver Forest Lab, enabling myForest users to collect and share data from their woodlands to help support research. myForest users are responsible for about 9% of woodland area across the UK, therefore collectively are able to represent a wide range of woodland types, and to explore many different issues, at thousands of different locations across the country. We hope that as a result we will create a unique and powerful tool to capture important information and data about environmental change. How to take part? Sweet Chestnut is a durable, straight growth, dimensionally stable timber well suited to use in buildings. However, very little UK grown sweet chestnut is used in construction. The majority is converted into fencing or burnt as biomass.

When creating either a forest creation or management plan it is vital to outline the Forest Management Unit (FMU). The FMU is the area subject to a forest management plan or proposal. This area is selected by the owner and/or manager and will be determined by the nature of the forest, the proposed operations and both creation and management objectives. Extensive FMUs have the advantage of allowing a strategic approach to be taken in achieving UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) Requirements, both in terms of the area covered and the timescale. a plan submission proforma ( MS Word Document, 16.3 KB) if you’re receiving funding from the Countryside Stewardship scheme