Epping Forest wildlife and conservation

Trees in Epping Forest

Read details of the weekly work programme.

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

Wildflower 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.

Bird 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.

A deer asleep Apart from the ubiquitous Grey Squirrels, Rabbits, Muntjac Deer and Fallow Deer are frequently seen.

Download the deer leaflet (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 (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.

Bracket fungi It is against the Forest bye-laws to pick or remove any fungi from the Forest. A licence scheme that was introduced in 2004 to allow picking for personal consumption has been suspended to help protect the genetic stock of fungi in the Forest.

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.

Student and Naturalist Projects in Epping Forest

If you are considering using Epping Forest as a study site for your university or school project, or if you are a naturalist wishing to undertake fieldwork in Epping Forest you will need to obtain a licence beforehand.

For the licence you will need to provide the following information:

1. Your address and telephone numbers

2. The dates (or period) that you intend doing your fieldwork in the Forest

3. Details of all the locations you intend to visit during your fieldwork

4. A basic outline of your methodology e.g stating any materials to be used. This is so we know how you intend to carry out the work and whether we need to give consent for any invasive methodology (e.g. soil samples)

5. A risk assessment

6. A copy of your own of your university's indemnity insurance

Please send this information to

Senior Ecologist, The Warren, Nursery Road, Loughton IG10 4RW

or alternatively email andy.froud@cityoflondon.gov.uk

If your project is suitable for undertaking within Epping Forest, you will always be asked to provide a copy of your university assignment upon completion.