Forestry grants

jamesf85

Hi all,

I’m hoping someone here might have a little bit of knowledge on this.

My wife and I have inherited 15 acres of land. We’re hoping to build on this but would also love to plant some trees around the perimeter. I estimate it would probably take well over 1,000 trees to give proper cover as it’s completely void of trees currently.

My wife has horses so planting throughout the land isn’t possible (although I’d love a mini forest :P).

Does anyone know if there are any grants available for this or does there have to be a certain amount of depth and thickness to any plantation?

Birdnuts

Not 100% on this but I think the native woodland scheme caters for such planting

jamesf85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120982156#Comment_120982156

As far as I know that’s to expand on existing forestry or to plant a new one.

I don’t believe I would qualify as I’m only able to plant 2-3 trees wide but it World be in a square shape around the land essentially.

Does anyone know if there is any funding for this?

cap.in.hand.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120984415#Comment_120984415

Realistically Most of the forest service grants are given out to give a commercial return in the form of processed timber for the state.

jamesf85

I assumed as much but thought with the greens in govt there might be some incentive for farmers or land owners to plant as many trees as possible even if not converting entirely to forestry

accidental forester

There are a lot of variables but generally a width of 20m is considered the minimum. For details:

https://forestryservices.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Forestry_Standards_and_Procedures_Manual_2015.pdf

893bet

The acres scheme maybe?

You need to be a farmer for this but assume the horses would get you there once you tick the right boxes etc.

Speedsie

Hi @jamesf85

I wonder if it would be worth contacting the Trees on the Land initiative to source trees.

Farms & Smallholdings:

Sponsored trees are available free of charge to farms and smallholdings.

There is no upper or lower limit on tree numbers - larger projects may undertake planting over a number of years as multi-year projects

Speeds

https://www.treesontheland.com/plant-trees-2022-2023

ALso try Burrenbeo Trust https://burrenbeo.com/ or Hometree https://www.hometree.ie/

Coillte gives out free broadleaves and I'm sure other organizations do likewise.

timfromtang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058309335/forestry-grants

Hi James,

I'd suggest that planting throughout the land is indeed possible, Have you come across agroforestry? the idea is to combine trees with crops and grazing animals.You may be able to have grant assisted planting after all. The idea would be to plant trees far apart over the area, each tree is protected from grazing by a plastic tube or a fence, and the land in between is grazed.

I understand that there are grants available for agroforestry.

tim