Seed Sourcing Grant (SSG) Projects

Future Trees Trust is delighted to be awarded funding through the Forestry Commission’s Seed Sourcing Grant (SSG) for two projects.

The SSG launched in September 2022 and provides funding to create or identify new Seed Stands and Seed Orchards and make existing Stands as productive as possible for seed collectors in the long term.

Tree seed is a key, but often overlooked part of tree production. With the government’s ambitious tree planting commitments, and the introduction of legally binding targets to increase tree and woodland cover in England to 16.5% by 2050, demand for trees and therefore tree seed is more important than ever. That’s why last year the Forestry Commission launched the Seed Sourcing Grant (SSG), to enhance the quality, quantity, and diversity of tree seed sources in England.

See the Future Trees Trust projects funded by the SSG below:

Project 1: Source-identified seed stand, grafting pilot, plus tree identification

Create a Source-identified seed stand for blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) using seed from the Millennium Seed Bank. Carry out a grafting pilot on beech (Fagus sylvatica), hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and field maple (Acer campestre) to address lack of grafting knowledge for these species. Identify beech and hornbeam plus trees across southern Britain (regions of provenance 30 and 40). Beech plus trees will then be grafted for a Qualified Clonal Seed Orchard to be planted after the funded project ends.

Project 2: A new Tested Seed Orchards for Sessile and Pedunculate Oak, the first of their kind in the UK.

In collaboration with the Earth Trust and Sotterley Estate, Future Trees Trust through selective thinning, is converting a progeny trial at Earth Trust (Oxfordshire) into a Tested pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) Seed Orchard and a progeny trial at Sotterley Estate into a Tested sessile oak (Q. petraea) Seed Orchard. The trials were originally established in 2003 and growth and form data collected over 18 years which will be used to design the rogueing strategies (The process of removing unhealthy or poor growth trees).

Marking up an oak progeny trial for conversion to a seed orchard for Quercus robur. Funded by Forestry Commission seed sourcing grant

Find out about the other projects funded.

Also read: Addressing the need for seed: How we’re tackling the demand for quality trees by Megan Shirley, Incentives Manager at the Forestry Commission looking at how the FC are continuing to support future tree seed production through the reopening of the Seed Sourcing Grant later this spring.