Apply for a felling licence

Use this service to apply for a felling licence.

Before you start

You will need to provide us with the following information:

• full name, address and contact details of the landowners or leaseholders
• name of the woodland, nearest town or village, county, and grid reference
• details about any larch on your proposed felling site
• details about the felling, thinning, or restocking work
• maps showing the areas that you plan to fell, thin, or restock

If you are applying as an agent, you will also need to provide your:

• organisation name
• full name
• address
• contact details

Felling your site

If you are felling trees on your site, you will also need to provide:

• how you will manage your felling (this must be in line with the UK Forestry Standard)
• the age of the trees
• the total number of trees you are planning to fell
• estimated volume of the trees using the Timber Volume Calculator
• the start and finish date of the felling
• the type of felling (for example, clear felling)

Thinning your site

If you are thinning trees on your site (to provide more growing space for the remaining trees), you will also need to provide:

• the date of the last thinning of the site

Restocking your site

If you are restocking (replanting new trees in the area you want to fell), you will also need to provide:

• how you will manage your restocking (this must be in line with the UK Forestry Standard)
• the area you plan to restock with trees
• the area you plan to keep as open ground
• number of trees that you are planting
• the name and percentage of each tree species
• the restocking method (for example, planting)
• the composition of your woodland if you are not following the UK Forestry Standard

Documents to upload

You will need to upload some or all the following documents to your application:

• felling, restocking, or thinning map
• felling spreadsheet if you are planning to fell trees on your site
• restocking spreadsheet if you are planning to restock your site
• thinning spreadsheet if you are planning to carry out thinning on your site
• any advice you have received from CADW, this could be a consultation response or a scheduled monument consent
• the Environmental Impact Assessment decision letter if you’re not planning to restock the site
• evidence of your discussion with the regulatory woodland officer, if you’re not planning to restock the site
• a map showing what alternative area you are planning to restock
• a habitats regulations assessment

Create a map of your site

The Forestry Commission has a free tool that uses an Ordnance Survey base map. 

If you need to send us a map, it must:  

• use a scale of no greater than 1:10,000
• show the scale on the map
• be up to date
• have all underlying data visible
• show the access point to the felling area including grid reference
• clearly show the felling, thinning, or restocking area, including a grid reference

Apply for a tree felling licence

Timescales

We will acknowledge receiving your application within three working days.

We will arrange a site visit within three weeks, if needed.

Details of your application will be put on the felling licence register for four weeks.

We cannot issue you with a felling licence until this four-week period on the register has ended.

If your application is for thinning only or your site contains larch trees, we will not add the details to the public register.

We may consult with local authorities and other organisations about your application.

We will let you know within 13 weeks if your felling licence has been successful.