The Epping Forest management team has
the task of maintaining the natural habitats developed over more
than 1,000 years of use by people and their grazing animals. These
traditional uses created a diverse landscape that includes areas of
historic wood-pasture, green lanes, ancient pollarded trees and
grassy plains. Even today Epping Forest is still a wonderfully
natural landscape, rich in wildlife and history. The Forest is
internationally renowned for its ancient pollarded trees -
primarily Oak, Beech and Hornbeam. Such trees are many hundreds of
years old and support a wealth of insects and fungi including many
quite rare and vulnerable species
Download the fungi leaflet
here (265kb)
The flora is also diverse with over 650 plant species including
Birds-Foot Trefoil, Red Campion, Oxeye Daisy, Willowherb, Knapweed,
Fleabane, Bluebells, Heather, Petty Whin, Devil's-bit Scabious,
Spiny Restharrow and Pepper Saxifrage.
Birds in residence include all three species of Woodpecker,
Skylarks, Tree Creepers and Nuthatches. Wildfowl such as Swans,
Great Crested Grebes, Herons, Gadwall, Goosander and Wigeon enjoy
over 80 lakes and ponds.
Apart from the ubiquitous Grey Squirrels,
Rabbits, Muntjac Deer and Fallow Deer are frequently seen.
Download the deer leaflet
here (385kb)
Reptiles who make the Forest their home include the Adder, Grass
snake, newts and toads and frogs.
The Conservators have re-introduced traditional management
techniques, such as grazing and pollarding, to ensure that the
veteran trees and their associated flora and fauna survive for
future generations to enjoy. Grazing by cattle has taken place
continuously in Epping Forest for well over a thousand years.
Grazing by free-ranging commoners’ cattle continued throughout the
20th century although numbers started to decline as farming
practices changed. In 1996 the impact of the BSE crisis finally
broke the tradition. Fortunately grazing continued on a small
heathland area of the Forest where a commoner had entered into a
partnership with the Conservators by introducing a limited number
of English Longhorn cattle to rejuvenate the rare heathland flora.
These Longhorns became the basis for a conservation herd that was
re-established on the Forest at Fairmead and Chingford in 2002. A
herdsman was employed to keep the cattle within this area where
they have now grazed for several summers. The herd has now grown to
50 cows which are grazed in smaller groups.
Download the grazing leaflet
here (281kb)
They are a valuable conservation tool.
Traditional pollarding and re-pollarding techniques are
undertaken by highly trained staff to try and preserve the veteran
trees. There are over 50,000 of these ancient trees and without
such attention their crowns would eventually become too heavy and
they will topple over or split, leading to their death. It is the
long-lived nature of these trees, together with the nooks and
crannies that result from old age, that enable them to support such
a wide range of insects, other invertebrates, fungi, mosses and
lichens. Some do, of course, eventually die but even then the dead
wood provides valuable habitat for all sorts of organisms. For this
reason dead wood is generally left where it falls in the
Forest.
The nature conservation importance of the Forest has resulted in
more than two thirds of it being designated a Site of Special
Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation. There are
around 500 rare and endangered insect species in the
Forest.
Applications for a fungus licence
(ie for picking fungi) can be made to the
Epping Forest Visitor Centre, telephone 020 8508 0028 or
email.
Further information can be found in our fungi leaflet
Download the fungi leaflet
here (265kb)
Conservation is a multi-faceted task as much concerned with
clearing ponds as with rediscovering the lost art of pollarding
trees. The City of London’s skilled Forest workforce is assisted on
many conservation projects by enthusiastic groups of local
volunteers including the Epping Forest Conservation Volunteers and
the Wren Group.
The Epping Forest Field Centre at High Beach, managed by the
Field Studies Council on behalf of the
City of London, provides courses on natural sciences and
geography for schoolchildren and a wide range of professional
and general interest courses for adults.
Useful and practical conservation tasks for adult, youth and
school groups are organised by the Epping Forest Centenary Trust. All abilities
are catered for and tasks carried out under proper supervision.
Contact The Environmental Awareness Officer or The Conservation
Project Officer.
Address is : Epping Forest Centenary Trust, The Warren Lodge.
Loughton, IG10 4RN. Email
EFCT or tel 020 8508 9061.
Conservation links
Epping Forest
Conservation Volunteers
Epping
Forest District Badger Group
Field Studies Council
Epping Forest
Centenary Trust
50 favourite trees of Epping Forest
district
Click here to download the
Working in Partnership: Grazing leaflet
(158kb)