GovWire

This guidance has been jointly produced by Defra, Forestry Commission and Natural England to help our staff and applicants:

• identify sites that are not likely to be of importance for waders
• know when further engagement with the Forestry Commission and Natural England is required to determine if an upland breeding wader survey is needed
• identify sites where we will fund an upland breeding waders survey
• decide on the suitability of sites for woodland creation where we have breeding wader survey information

This guidance will help you with early screening of site sensitivities. It does not replace full assessment of sites submitted for afforestation. This guidance applies to upland farmland and moorland in the north of England and deals only with curlew, lapwing and redshank.

There are other bird species which breed or forage on unenclosed habitats, including ground nesting raptors, oystercatcher, snipe, golden plover, dunlin, ring ouzel, skylark and twite etc. Afforestation can have a negative impact on all these species which all need to be considered.