FAQs

The Mersey Forest is a place, and The Mersey Forest Partnership are the group of organisations that work together to deliver The Mersey Forest Plan. Our plan is focused on growing a network of well looked after trees and woods, as well as other habitats across Cheshire and Merseyside. We work with lots of people and organisations to make this happen – partners, landowners, manager, farmers, local communities, businesses and schools.

The Mersey Forest team helps to coordinate the partnership in various ways to help deliver The Mersey Forest Plan.

We have a board and steering group that guide our work which you can find out more about here.

The organisations in The Mersey Forest Partnership are not for profit (entities). We are partly funded through Local Authorities in the partnership. We also bid for grants from various organisations, including central government, which we use to help deliver The Mersey Forest Plan.
Our strategic budget is provided in our five-year delivery plan.

We can provide information about how ‘Friends of’ groups can access grants that might be available and we can offer other support to help groups deliver The Mersey Forest Plan. We can also signpost to other successful ‘Friends of’ groups in the local area who may be willing to share their experience (for example Friends of Anderton and Marbury).

When we redeveloped the website in early 2025, we decided that we’d change our approach to listing individual woodlands and greenspaces in the area. We do continue to map woodlands in our area on our Tree Atlas, but we recommend using other websites or apps to find out more detailed information about accessible routes to enjoy these woodlands and greenspaces. Visit the Enjoy trees and woods page on our website for more information.

Get in touch with The Mersey Forest via our online application form or by emailing: mail@merseyforest.org.uk to make an enquiry about planting trees on your land. You will be sent a form to complete where you will need to provide some basic information, such as the location of your land, your estimated planting area, current land type (e.g. former agricultural) and a map of the area.

A Woodland Advisor will get in touch and discuss your project and visit your site to assess the land. They will then work with you to design a new woodland to achieve your objectives, making sure that the right trees are planted in the right place.

Regulatory approvals may be required for your project, depending on the scale and location. We will work with you and the relevant authorities to gain the necessary permissions.

We can supply funding directly for your project, with our Trees for Climate funding covering up to 100% of the costs of tree planting, including tree guards and associated infrastructure. You can find out more about this grant on our website.

If you need support delivering your project your Woodland Advisor can help you source the trees and materials needed, plus recommend contractors that can help you get the trees in the ground.

Every planting site that we fund is visited by an experienced Woodland Advisor when the landowner first enquires about planting. We do a full assessment of the land and only sites that are suitable progress. As part of this process, we complete a risk assessment and, for larger schemes, environmental impact assessments, if required, to ensure the scheme only has a positive impact for the local wildlife and environment.

We encourage landowners and farmers to plant on less productive land or land that is not in use, so as not to impact on the farm business and food production levels.

Trees can benefit a farm business by creating shelter belts, reducing water loss from the soil, reducing flooding and creating shade for livestock.

We have a number of schemes that are looking at agroforestry as a way of managing their land.  If your land falls within The Mersey Forest boundary, our local Woodland Advisor will visit your site and work closely with you to suggest a woodland establishment scheme that works for the farm business.

We take a flexible approach to each woodland establishment scheme and can fund schemes from 0.1ha up. These can include design elements such as grass or wildflower margins, to further improve biodiversity in the area, and hedgerows. Plus, our grants cover up to 15 years of establishment payments.

Ensuring the site is suitable for planting and planning for ongoing maintenance is really important with any planting project. Our Woodland Advisors work closely with landowners to provide advice on this, helping them to keep on top of their woodland management to ensure their woodlands thrive.

Part of our grant offer is that we can fund a long-term establishment plan of up to 15 years. The landowner is responsible for the trees that are planted on their land and we recommend having a long-term woodland management plan in place to help with this.

The length of the Agreement you enter into when you receive a Trees for Climate grant is 15 years. This means you must look after your trees as set out in the grant for those 15 years or your grant could be reclaimed.

The Grant should cover the upfront costs for planting your woodland and ensure enough money is left to help with maintaining your trees and other habitats.

The payments are made in three instalments:

• The first payment of 70% after you have completed any ground preparation and fencing work and your trees have been planted.
• The second payment of 20% is after 5 years when your trees have established themselves and work has been carried out to weed around the base of the trees and remove any tree guards.
• The third and final payment of 10% is after 10 years, following an inspection to verify your trees have successfully established.

Once a landowner completes an Expression of Interest Form an experienced Woodland Advisor will visit a landowner’s site to assess the type of land, look at the soil quality and planting in the local area.  From this assessment they will decide if a potential planting scheme is suitable and will assess all factors which need to be considered when designing the woodland, such as archaeological features, landscape character, ecology and utilities. They will also gain any permission that may be need from government bodies like Forestry Commission and Natural England.

A local Woodland Advisor will assess which tree species will be suitable for a landowner’s site once they have completed a site visit. This will be based on a number of things including the type of soil on the land and the tree species which can be found locally.  The vast majority of the species we select will be native species, based around the woodland types that are found in the UK. Due to our changing climate, it is also important to look ahead and see which trees might thrive in the same location but in 50-100 years’ time.

Orchard creation and the planting of larger trees, known as “standards”, aren’t typically fundable through Trees for Climate but may be included in small amounts within a larger planting scheme; this would be at the discretion of the Woodland Adviser assessing the site.

We can fund up to 100% of the costs of a woodland creation project.  This includes funding for the trees and associated infrastructure, such as fencing, guards and gates.

Once the landowner has signed the landowner agreement, which details the scheme that will be planted on the land, the landowner will receive the first tranche of the funding.

The payments are made in 3 instalments:

• The first payment of 70% after you have completed any ground preparation and fencing work and your trees have been planted.
• The second payment of 20% is after 5 years when your trees have established themselves and work has been carried out to weed around the base of the trees and remove any tree guards.
• The third and final payment of 10% is after 10 years, following an inspection to verify your trees have successfully established.

There are several grants and other incentives available for woodland creation, maintenance, management and tree health, outside of Community Forest areas. For details, go to: https://woodlandcreation.campaign.gov.uk/grants-and-support/

Unfortunately, we are currently unable to accept donations of trees from the public. We have reluctantly come to adopt this position because of the logistical difficulties associated with fitting them into projects, maintaining the principles of right-tree-right-place, and working within the limitations of only planting ‘Plant Healthy’ tree stock. Our position on this has been strengthened by the current severe threats posed to the urban forest by invasive pests and diseases, which have forced us to limit ourselves to a few trusted suppliers.

Other charities are likely to have a similar stance, so we suggest contacting local friends of parks associations, schools, or community groups.

A tree may already be protected by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) or because it is located in a conservation area. Protected trees generally cannot be cut down, topped, lopped, uprooted, or deliberately damaged without permission from the local planning authority.

We recommend visiting your local authority’s website and searching for Tree Preservation Order to find out if it is protected and making contact with the Council’s planning or tree officer.

If the tree is not currently protected, you can ask the Council to consider making a TPO.

If work has already started and you think it might be unauthorised contact your local authority. If woodland-scale felling is involved, you can report suspected illegal felling to the Forestry Commission.