AN Airton farm is playing a key role in a project to plant woodlands that help reduce flooding and water pollution.

Woodland for Water is a scheme run by the Forestry Commission and Environment Agency (EA), which offers landowners free access to a professional adviser who helps them apply for a grant to plant trees and improve their land.

Steven Crabtree, whose main tenanted farm is on the Bolton Abbey Estate, also owns Ormsgill Green Farm, which is situated at the head of the River Aire catchment in the Yorkshire Dales.

He bought Ormsgill Green Farm in 2013 with the aim of improving management of the land.

As part of the Woodland for Water scheme, Mr Crabtree is creating widespread riparian woodland on areas of the most unproductive land, which will help prevent flooding and soil erosion.

He applied for a grant in 2013/2014 from the Forestry Commission to help cover the cost of planting.

The grant offers £1.28 per tree as well as funding for fencing and tree shelters and an annual maintenance payment.

Mr Crabtree's scheme is the largest, amounting to 18.59 hectares in nine blocks at the head of the River Aire catchment.

This area has been set aside for the Upper Aire Habitat and Land Management Improvement Project - a partnership between Yorkshire Farming and Wildlife Partnership, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the EA, which works with farmers in the Upper Aire catchment from Malham to Keighley.

The area is within the Yorkshire Dales National Park and has a small population of the nationally declining species black grouse. The black grouse is on the Biodiversity Action Plan as one of the most rapidly declining species and is a high priority for conservation.

Planting of 20,510 trees is currently in progress.

Mr Crabtree said: “From my point of view the scheme will help to manage the sediment and provide valuable shelter. It will help create new habitats for wildlife. I also like trees and I think it will make a big improvement to the aesthetic quality of the area."

The project aims to address the problems created by some of the watercourses in the Upper Aire catchment to meet Good Ecological Status standards.

The Forestry Commission and EA identified priority areas for woodland creation in Yorkshire and the North East, where planting will reduce the risk of flooding and diffuse rural pollution.

Sediment and diffuse pollution, particularly phosphates, is adversely affecting water quality, fish and other native wildlife.

Some areas around Craven and across North Yorkshire and the North East are at risk from downstream flooding; others from diffuse pollution pressures and some are at risk from both.

Grant applications must be submitted to the Forestry Commission by April 30, and then these will be scored with the most appropriate sites being awarded the grants.

To provide expert advice and assist landowners with the application process, the Forestry Commission is providing free advisers in five regions until the end of March.

The advisers can walk landowners through the process from scheme objectives and design through to the grant application. All are experienced in woodland creation and know the geographic area they are working in very well.

Richard Pow, partnership and expertise manager at the Forestry Commission, said: “We are hoping that this free expert advice twinned with the grants will stimulate the creation of many interesting new woodlands across Yorkshire and the North East, contributing to the Government’s aspiration of doubling the current rate of woodland creation.

EA project manager Helen Davies added: “The right trees planted in the right places can reduce levels of water pollution or mitigate downstream flood risk.

"We’re delighted to be working on this pioneering project with the Forestry Commission as part of encouraging natural solutions to addressing flood risk and improving water quality, whilst at the same time benefitting the local environment.”

Any Craven landowners interested in planting new woodland, and would like to benefit from the free advice and grant aid on offer, can contact local adviser Phil Lyth on 07713 333170 or email him at Phil.lyth@farmingandwildlife.net

Mr Lyth will first check whether landowners are in the target area for woodland creation and then can arrange a site visit.