One of the Woodland Trust’s strategic aims is to create more woodland environments across the UK. Trees are known to deliver significant benefits for nature, carbon sequestration and mental wellbeing, yet only 13.5% of the UK is classed as woodland.

At any one time, the Woodland Trust can have dozens of woodland creation projects planned or in progress, managed by different teams, across multiple regions, on its estates and land owned by third parties, under a variety of funding schemes. All these projects were planned independently and reported separately, which made it hard for managers to monitor achievement of the charity’s woodland creation goals.

To address this complex situation, the Woodland Trust used Esri’s web-based software, ArcGIS Online, and the Sweet for ArcGIS app to create a new way of planning and monitoring woodland creation schemes. The transformative solution was built by staff at the Woodland Trust, with support from a consultant in Esri UK’s Professional Services group, who shared her knowledge of Sweet for ArcGIS and helped the internal team to get started.

Known internally as the ‘Creation and Grants App’, the solution is used by around 130 people involved in woodland creation in the charity, across different programmes of work, multiple grant schemes and dozens of locations. The rich digital mapping and geospatial data in the app enable them to visualise the shape of the landscape at specific sites, understand vistas and create detailed planting and management plans. Project teams use tools within the app to design entrance points and pathways for the new woodland, estimate the trees required and even pinpoint locations for benches.

The app is tightly aligned with the charity’s ‘Woodland Creation Guide,’ which provides a nationally-recognised methodology for achieving the best results when creating new woodland. The app automatically prompts users to apply the methodology to get the right mix of native species and provide appropriate public access, for example. Site managers and outreach advisors can then revisit the schemes and update them over time, as plans evolve.

Critically, the app collates data about all new woodland creation projects that are planned or in progress, the projected number of trees, the number of trees planted and when planting occurred. All this data—and more—is available to view on interactive dashboards in ArcGIS Online. Users can zoom into maps on the dashboards and query the statistics by geography or key attributes, such as funding type. The data in the dashboards is updated daily, giving managers accurate information about all woodland creation schemes on land owned by the charity and its partners.

Alongside the Creation & Grants App, staff at the Woodland Trust also use another app, created with the ArcGIS Experience Builder web app building tool, to quickly check sites for unsuitable ground conditions and other constraints such as the locations of ancient monuments. In this way, the charity can quickly rule out unsuitable sites and provide its advisors with useful information to inform their site visits. Staff access all their geospatial data and apps using a portal, built using one of Esri’s StoryMap templates.

Greater visibility of planned and active projects
Using the Sweet for ArcGIS app, the Woodland Trust has succeeded in building a mapping application that gives staff far greater visibility of all planned and active projects, facilitating better collaboration between teams and improving efficiency. For instance, data from the charity’s MOREWoods schemes, crofting, agroforestry and estate planting, are all now visible to appropriate groups, in the same way, for the first time.

Better designs for resilient woodland environments
The Woodland Trust’s site managers and outreach advisors can use the new app to plan the right mix of tree species, in the right locations, to create sustainable woodlands, optimise vistas and create attractive public spaces. “Staff can now better visualise where to put high and low density planting to create a varied, resilient and interesting woodland, and where this sits in a wider landscape context,” explains Ian White, GIS Manager at the charity.

Effective monitoring of progress towards goals
The ArcGIS dashboards provide managers at the Woodland Trust with a clear and up-to-date overview of the status of all woodland creation activity, irrespective of how each project has been funded, planned or delivered. Consequently, it is now far easier for the charity to monitor the achievement of its tree planting goals and provide evidence to grant providers. “Woodland creation is one of our key strategic aims, and ArcGIS is enabling us to better understand how and where we are making a difference,” notes White.

Improved efficiency throughout the trust
Buoyed up by the efficiency improvements that it is witnessing in woodland creation, the GIS team at the Woodland Trust is now planning new solutions to improve efficiency in other areas such as the restoration of existing, ancient woodland. “Woodland creation is just one of many things that we do at the trust,” says White. “We can already see that we will be able to use what we have learned with Sweet for ArcGIS on this project to develop other solutions in the future. It feels very positive to have these GIS tools available to us.”