Riparian woodland often provides little direct economic return for landowners but many environmental and societal benefits, including clean water, flood mitigation and cooler water temperatures. Restoring and expanding riparian woodland along our streams and rivers to deliver these increasingly needed benefits therefore requires funding support to incentivise land use change.

The Kennetsideshead Farm woodland creation project, delivered in partnership with the Tweed Forum and Borders Forest Trust, demonstrates how this can be achieved. The project is carefully designed to deliver a wide range of benefits and ecosystem services across the landscape, while supporting the farm’s goal of diversifying its core agricultural business.

Working with Forest Research, the project piloted the use of an innovative ‘Woodland Water Code’ (WWC) to quantify the water quality, flood and shading benefits provided, so that these can be properly valued and potentially support private investment to deliver more woodland planting where most needed.