Farm Woodland

General criteria for entries

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• Please note where ‘farm’ or ‘farming’ is used this also applies to ‘croft’ or ‘crofting’.
• Entry is open to active farmers/crofters with a farm/croft anywhere in Scotland.
• The business must have a Rural Payments’ Business Reference Number (BRN).
• Farm/croft woodland may be managed by one or more people - there is no need to give your age!  
• The farmer/crofter must be directly involved, to a greater or lesser extent, with the farm/croft woodland management that forms part of the farming business and is to its benefit.  The Integrating Trees Network includes examples of such benefits.
• Your entry can include more than one woodland block on the farm.  The Guidance below states more details about age, size and type of woodlands that are eligible, and gives guidelines on what the judges are seeking from your entry to identify this year’s winner.

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What type of farm/croft woodland(s)?

• The farm/croft must be actively managed with a BRN.
• The area of woodland must be 2 hectares (4.9 acres) or more in size, with tree canopy cover (or the potential to achieve this if a young woodland) of at least 20%.  
• If the woodland is younger or of mixed age, it may have been established by planting or natural regeneration on previously bare or cropped land, or on land that has previously had tree cover.
• It can be of any established tree species or woodland type and contain integral open space and/or woody shrubs or other farm crops/ground cover. 
• There may be one or more woodland areas on the farm/croft included in the entry. 
• If planted, farm woodlands should have at least 5 years' growth (planted 2020-21).
• The Integrating Tree Network illustrates some of the benefits to integrating trees and woodlands into the farming/crofting operations.  The farm/croft’s woodland(s) will be used in a sustainable and potentially enterprising way with responsible management providing direct farming benefits in terms of productivity and financial sustainability.  Benefits to the farmer and farm may include some of the following:  generating income from sustainably managed woodlands; carbon sequestration; using biomass, fuelwood or wood chips on site or selling these as a renewable, clean, carbon-neutral energy; for livestock shelter or shade; biodiversity; riparian, flood management and run-of prevention; sporting interests; amenity or other objectives.  

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Why enter – the prize

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A £1,000 cash prize is awarded to the winning project at the discretion of the judges as an exemplar to others.  In addition, the prestigious Lilburn trophy, as stated on page 1, will be awarded at the discretion of the judges with custody for one year.  Other high-quality entries may receive a judges’ commendation.

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 judges expect to directly notify shortlisted entries after the closing date and will aim to visit selected sites during 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.  Judges will assess entries against the following criteria:

• Quality of entry form and supporting information
• Clarity of management objectives clearly delivering direct farming/crofting benefits with good woodland practice and demonstrating benefits in relation to the Integrating Trees Network and carbon sequestration. 
• Quality of project design and implementation
• The degree of progress and necessary adaptation(s) since inception
• Likelihood of achieving the project’s original objectives.

Aspects that the judges will be looking for include:

• An innovative and/or enterprising approach
• Successful integration of the woodland(s) with the farming/crofting activities ideally improving productivity
• How the woodland benefits contribute to the farm/croft’s financial sustainability
• Woodland type appropriate to the site with natural heritage and any historic environment safeguarded
• Maximising overall biodiversity benefits 
• Direct or indirect economic benefits to those on the farm/croft and/or nearby
• Ideally how peers are encouraged to also manage farm woodlands in a positive way.

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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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Further Information

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For more information, please see www.sfwa.co.uk or contact:  Jean Nairn, Executive Director, Scotland's Finest Woods Awards



• Email:admin@sfwa.co.uk
• Tel: 07954 847055 (leave message)
• Socials:  Twitter; LinkedIn

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