Community Woodlands

Entry Guidance & Criteria

What sort of Community Woodland project is eligible?

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Entry is open to community-based woodland projects from any part of Scotland. All entrants should be able to demonstrate significant and sustained community input. There are two prize categories and entrants can enter the one applicable to their community woodland group:

Small community woodland group - entry is open to projects such as community woodlands, urban woodlands or other projects that focus on involving communities with their woodland environment and thereby enhancing the lives of local people. Your community woodland group is likely to be entirely made up of volunteers and with an annual turnover of no more than £20,000. You will be asked to demonstrate the contribution that your project makes to the lives of local people and explain the steps you are taking to ensure sustainability of the project for the long term.
Large community woodland group – you will be a large community woodland group and may have a member of staff or someone working with you on a dedicated time basis. Your turnover is likely to be over £20,000/annum. You will be asked to demonstrate how your project contributes to sustainable development across the three strands of social, economic and environmental development. The judges will be looking for a holistic approach that delivers outcomes and benefits across all three strands.

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Why enter – the prize

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Under the Community Woodland Award, there is a total of £2,000 in cash prizes available. This shall be awarded by way of £1,000 for the winning project in each category at the discretion of the judges. In addition, the prestigious Tim Stead Trophy will be awarded to the best winning project overall at the discretion of the judges with custody for one year. Other high-quality entries may receive a judges’ commendation.

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The winner and any commended entries will receive a certificate and a wooden display plaque recording their achievement.

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Judging

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The safety of Judges and entrants is paramount. The judges expect to directly notify shortlisted entries after the closing date and will aim to visit short-listed sites over the summer. If you do not hear from the judges by September unfortunately your entry has not been short-listed. However, you are encouraged to re-apply in future years!

Our judges' task will be to find and reward the pursuit of excellence, and the judges will assess entries against the following criteria:

Quality of entry form and supporting information
Clarity of management objectives
Quality of project design and implementation
The degree of progress and necessary adaptation since inception
Likelihood of achieving the project’s original objectives.

Aspects that the judges will be looking for include:

An innovative approach
Active engagement by the local community
Woodland management appropriate to the site
Safeguarding and enhancing natural heritage and historic environment features
Provision of recreation and other community facilities
Direct or indirect economic benefits to the community

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Supporting information and images

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You may include relevant supporting information especially images with your entry to help our judges in their decision making. Examples can include:

Materials can be previously published documents such as a summary management plan; maps - species’ distribution / vegetation pre-woodland establishment / soils; publicity leaflet(s).
Photographs – up to 10 photographs. Please include people and / or scenic views in your images.
Videos – up to 3 videos and each one can be up to 60 seconds in length. Any videos should be a maximum file size of 5MB and should be submitted as a hyper- or downloadable link (e.g. YouTube or WeTransfer).
Please confirm that any photos or videos can be used for publicity purposes or clearly state otherwise.

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Publicity

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An objective of Scotland’s Finest Woods and its partners is to showcase entrants as exemplars of good practice so as to encourage other projects in future years. By entering the competition, entrants are accepting that their woodland may be used as an example of good practice in post-competition publicity, and as may be agreed with the entrant, in other ways.

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In order to maximise the potential for obtaining publicity, entrants are invited to provide publication quality photography as well as videos, if available. Guidance is given in the section above about submitting images and videos for those who wish to do so. Please confirm that photos or videos can be used for publicity purposes or clearly state otherwise.

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How to enter

Head to the Entry Form on the Scotland’s Finest Woods Awards’ website: www.sfwa.co.uk/enter-awards
After reading the Guidance, complete the entry form if your project satisfies all the entry criteria.
The form doesn’t save anything until you hit Submit. It's a good idea to prepareyour answers in Docs or Notes first so you don’t lose anything, then copy and paste when you’re ready to submit.
Completed entry form and any supporting information including videos and images to be up to 10MB per entry. Please submit any videos as a hyper or downloadable link (e.g. YouTube or WeTransfer).
If eligible, you may enter more than one category (up to 3 categories).
Statement about AI - please state if AI has been used in the drafting of your entry.
Please submit your application as early as possible by 23:59 on Sunday 31 May 2026 at the latest.
Our judging panel will consider entries and make awards at their discretion. If your project is shortlisted, expect the judges to arrange a site visit with your nominated contact person over the summer. Please include second contact details if your main contact will be away for any extended periods over the summer.

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Award Ceremony

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The 2026 prize-giving awards ceremony will be confirmed after the closing date. It is anticipated that the Awards’ Ceremony will be held during National Tree Week in November 2026, for those invited to attend in person and able to do so.

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