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Remove tree and scrub cover from sensitive features
The guidance on this page is for SFI pilot participants only. Please visit GOV.UK for the official Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme guidance.
Find out how land managers can look after geodiversity and historic features by removing trees and scrub.
If you’re completing this action as part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, how you do it is up to you.
The advice on this page can help you get better environmental and business benefits, but you do not have to follow it to get paid.
Protect landscape and historic features
Landscape and historic features are found on all types of land.
Landscape features are often called geodiversity features. They include both geological and geomorphological features.
Geological features include:
- inland rock outcrops
- road cuttings
- disused quarries
- fossil-bearing or mineral-bearing rocks
Geomorphological features include:
- river channels
- sediments
- gorges
- shingle ridges
Historic features include:
- historic structures like follies or farm buildings
- above ground features like ridge and furrow
- below ground features like prehistoric settlement remains
Register and request an SFI Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (SFI HEFER) to learn more about historic features on your land.
Scrub and trees can damage these features by:
- causing root damage
- disturbing the soil, for example when a tree falls
- attracting animals that burrow into the features
They can also block views of features and make them difficult to access.
Where to remove trees and scrub
You can remove moderate scrub or tree growth from stable historic and geodiversity features. Remove trees and scrub where they cause direct damage.
You can also clear the area around a feature to make it more visible, for example from public rights of way or public buildings. This may be appropriate for:
- sightlines in designed parklands
- some geodiversity features, like large-scale folds in rock layers
- ancient river channels
- earthworks that contribute to landscape character
Get specialist advice if scrub includes important or rare species like juniper.
You can cut scrub on sensitive features to create open areas within scrub mosaics or to maintain species-rich grassland.
Do not remove scrub or trees from complex features, or where the work itself is complex. This includes:
- fragile buried geodiversity features, like sediments, fossils or river channels
- inaccessible locations, like steep slopes or cave and mine entrances
- unstable features at risk of collapse because of root penetration, like historic structures, steep or vertical faces
- working at height, like on cliff faces and buildings above 1 storey
- extensive areas of scrub over 1 hectare that you need to remove in phases
Where you have no historic or geodiversity features you can manage scrub on non-sensitive features.
Benefits of removing trees and scrub
On historic and geodiversity features you can:
- increase the area available for grazing
- reduce weeds
- improve pest control, by removing habitats that attract pests like rabbits
- prevent future damage from vegetation and roots
- make them easier to access
- provide habitats for wildlife, like invertebrates and reptiles that can use bare rock and masonry
On geodiversity sites removing scrub can:
- protect records of our geodiversity
- tell us about past climate change and help make predictions about future change
On historic sites you can:
- protect historic features
- restore parkland views
- help preserve landscape character
Check if you need permission or consent
You’ll need to find out if you need consent from Historic England if your work affects:
You’ll need to talk to:
- your local authority if you plan to remove trees that are in a conservation area or subject to a Tree Preservation Order
- the Gardens Trust if work affects a Grade II registered park and garden
If your land is part of a site of special scientific interest (SSSI), you must find out whether you need consent to remove trees or scrub before you start.
You may need a wildlife licence if your work might affect protected species like bats, badgers, breeding birds, amphibians or reptiles.
You normally need a felling licence from the Forestry Commission before you can fell growing trees. Find out when you need permission and how to apply for a licence.
Find out if you need an Environmental Impact Assessment before you fell trees.
Birds, nests and eggs are protected by law. You must check the site before starting work. If you see signs of nesting birds, delay cutting until birds fledge.
How to remove trees or scrub from geodiversity and historic features
You can clear vegetation using:
- hand tools, like loppers and strimmers
- chemical control
- grazing animals, like cattle or native ponies
- goats on difficult to access areas like steep slopes
You can remove moderate scrub on stable features without a management plan. You’ll need a management plan for more extensive scrub or complex methods, like mechanical removal or use of high-pressure water.
Use hand tools
If you use hand tools, leave roots in place to decay naturally. Use a herbicide to control regrowth.
Only fell trees where there’s no alternative. Mechanically grind down tree stumps to ground level or leave them in place.
Remove cut material from the site so it does not attract burrowing animals. You’ll need to:
- do this by hand where removing material is difficult, like on steep slopes
- avoid causing ruts if dragging material
- avoid machinery causing damage to soil and the feature
To help with removing large material you can use a chipper. You’ll need to remove wood chips from the site.
Use chemical control
You can use chemical control on non-woody material, for example by spot treating with herbicide using a knapsack sprayer, hand-lance or weed wiper.
You can combine chemical control with cutting on woody growth. You can:
- paint herbicide on the stumps
- hammer in pegs applied with herbicide
Graze animals
If you use grazing animals to remove scrub, you can install fencing to control them. Read about how to apply for grants for capital items, including fencing.
You can mob graze to clear scrub. Mob grazing uses a very high density of livestock in a small area for a short time.
Monitor grazing to prevent poaching. Do not mob graze in wet weather. Repeated grazing over time may damage the features.
Remove trees or scrub from geodiversity features
On some sites, removing vegetation may cause erosion and make damage worse. You can clear temporary exposures for scientific study on these sites. For example, on soft sediment sites like sand, gravel or peat deposits, it’s best to:
- cut
- use chemical control
- leave the stumps in place
Remove trees or scrub from historic features
Clear vegetation from the whole feature or sightline. To form a buffer zone, clear within 5 metres of the feature.
Do not burn brash on the surface of historic features, or on any species-rich habitats nearby.
How to maintain the feature
Establish grassland on historic or buried geodiversity features
Once the scrub is cleared, establish grassland on the feature and for 5 metres surrounding the feature. This will protect it from erosion. This may not be possible on some features, like cliffs or some historic structures.
You must not supplementary feed livestock on historic features.
Avoid establishing grassland on features where the aim is to expose and maintain bare rock, like fossil-bearing or mineral-bearing rocks.
If bare areas in the grassland develop on and around the feature, you’ll need to reseed them. You may need to repeat this periodically. Do not cultivate before reseeding. If you leave bare areas to regrow naturally it’s likely that the scrub will come back.
Features without scrub may be more attractive to the public. To avoid damage from increased visitor numbers, choose tough grasses if you need to reseed.
You can add signage to engage and educate visitors. It can help visitors understand the site or feature.
Manage scrub
Ungrazed scrub will quickly grow back. Check once a year and control as required.
To keep the site free from vegetation, you can:
- cut every 1 or 2 years
- manage scrub with low intensity grazing
- treat non-woody material and tree stumps with herbicide
Metal detecting
You must not allow metal detecting on scheduled monuments on your land, unless you have consent. Ask the Rural Payments Agency whether you need permission to allow metal detecting on other known archaeological sites on your land. Any metal detecting you allow on your land should follow the Portable Antiquities Scheme best practice.
What a well-managed feature looks like
On geodiversity features you’ll see:
- sparse or no scrub
- increased areas of bare rock and sediment showing important features
- no signs of poaching or erosion, and no animal burrows
- views of large-scale geological features from public rights of way or accessible buildings
On historic features you’ll see:
- no scrub on the feature or buffer
- good coverage of grass and a 5 metre buffer around the feature
- no signs of poaching or erosion, and no animal burrows
- views from public rights of way and accessible buildings
- clear lines of sight to and from the feature
