Find out what’s involved in the 2020 grant and how to express your interest in receiving funding to reduce the negative impacts of deer in woodlands.
The deadline for submitting an expression of interest form for this opportunity has now passed.
How it works
The Forestry Commission and Natural England want wild deer to be part of sustainable forestry in England. However, wild deer have a negative impact on woods and forests, preventing young trees from establishing by eating growing shoots and damaging older trees by stripping and fraying bark. High densities of deer can have negative impacts on woodland biodiversity by significantly changing the structure of the understory and by overgrazing on ground flora. The key purpose of this grant is to improve the condition of woodlands, including priority UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) habitats (primarily broadleaved woodland) and sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), through reducing the negative impacts of deer.
The services to be provided by recipients of the grant are yet to be fully defined, but will be before any further documentation for applying for this grant is published (this is expected to be before 31 October 2019). We anticipate that they will include:
- increasing understanding among landowners/land managers of the negative impacts of deer and providing advice on the actions that they can take to manage deer at the landscape scale (both individually and in a coordinated way)
- building relationships that facilitate effective deer management at the landscape scale and developing effective and inclusive collaborative working (between individual landowners, land managers, estates, stalkers, national organisations involved in deer control, land ownership, land management, forestry, biodiversity and animal welfare)
- facilitating collaborative deer management activities, including landscape scale deer management planning and collaborative culls
- developing and exchanging best practice across deer and land management communities in order to raise awareness, enhance skills and empower these communities so that deer management becomes more effective and efficient
- robustly collecting and disseminating evidence and data that establishes a baseline of woodland condition relating to deer impacts (and allows for on-going monitoring and reporting on trends in the impact of deer on woodland condition)
- contributing expert advice and knowledge to help the Forestry Commission and Natural England develop existing and emerging policy, regulations and incentives
The current grant, which is closed for applications and expires on 31 March 2020, is delivered as one lot across 5 priority areas across England. This new grant will not necessarily be confined to these areas, but it will be delivered wholly within England. Activities may be procured in lots. Bids from consortia will be welcome.
Find out if you’re eligible
Anybody is eligible for this grant. The Forestry Commission will determine whether the applicant who expresses an interest has suitable experience of similar work and will be taken forward to the next stage of the process.
Contact the Forestry Commission
If you have any queries about the grant or need help completing the expression of interest form then contact the Forestry Commission at email@example.com.