Woodland Opportunity Plan

Planting trees on your land is one way you can help combat climate change and the biodiversity crisis. But you need to plant the right tree in the right place to make a positive impact on the environment.

To help you, we’ve created a Woodland Opportunity Plan and appointed a Woodland Officer for Nidderdale National Landscape.

There are grants of up to 100% available for tree planting and we are looking for sites across Nidderdale. If you are interested please contact the Nidderdale National Landscape Woodland Officer at [email protected].

View our story map  below to find out more. (Please note, the story map does not work when viewed through Internet Explorer.)

What’s the Woodland Opportunity Plan?

It’s actually two maps.

These maps are a quick and easy way to see the places on your property where planting trees could have the most benefits, for you and the environment.

These maps are not about locating areas where we will plant trees. They’re about supporting you if you are interested in planting trees on your land.

Each map has been created using the best data available, collated by Nidderdale National Landscape over a ten year period. They take into account over 80 different factors, ranging from wading bird habitat to soil erosion.

They’re also free for you to use.

• The Conservation Woodland Map focuses on opportunities for smaller scale tree planting, with a wildlife focus and likely to be predominantly broadleaf woodland.
• The Productive Woodland Map  focuses on opportunities for larger scale plantations with strong economic and carbon sequestration benefits, with potential for some wildlife gain.

The plan is about quality over quantity

Because of the special character of Nidderdale National Landscape, not every part of the landscape is suitable for planting.

These maps help us determine areas where planting trees could be of less benefit or even have a negative impact.

By identifying these areas, we can concentrate our tree planting support on places where increasing tree cover will be most beneficial – making sure we get the right tree in the right place.

Want to know more about how the maps were created?

You can read our Woodland Opportunity Plan Report  which outlines in detail how the maps were produced.

For more information

You can get in touch with Alice Crosby, Woodland Officer, on: [email protected].

The Woodland Opportunity Plan and Woodland Officer role are generously supported by The Woodland Trust.

Any new tree planting will expand the White Rose Forest, part of the new Northern Forest.