The Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT) is one of 46

wildlife trusts The Wildlife Trusts, the trading name of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, is an organisation made up of 46 local Wildlife Trusts in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and Alderney. The Wildlife Trusts, between them, look after more than 2, ...

which cover the United Kingdom. The EWT was founded in 1959, and it describes itself as Essex's leading conservation charity, which aims to protect wildlife for the future and the people of the county. As of January 2017, it has over 34,000 members and runs 87 nature reserves, 2 nature parks and 11 visitor centres.

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

has one of the longest coastlines of any

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

, with saltmarshes, lagoons, mudflats, grazing marshes, reedbeds and shingle. Its ancient forests were formerly important to the local economy, with wood being used for fuel, construction and bark in the tanning industry.

Coppicing Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeate ...

is being re-introduced by the EWT to encourage woodland grasses, flowers, invertebrates and birds. A few grasslands on the heavy clays of south- and mid-Essex are still grazed according to traditional methods, supporting a mixture of pasture and fen. Some brownfield sites, often on contaminated soil, have populations of nationally scarce species, particularly invertebrates. The EWT's first site was

Fingringhoe Wick Fingringhoe Wick is a nature reserve in Fingringhoe in Essex. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust, which runs a visitor centre on the site. It is part of the Colne Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest, Ramsar site and Nature Conserv ...

, which was established in 1961; its visitor centre has views over the Colne Estuary. The largest site is the

Hanningfield Reservoir Hanningfield Reservoir is a large pumped storage reservoir located between Billericay and Chelmsford in Essex. It has a surface area of and is owned and operated by Essex and Suffolk Water. The reservoir is part of a biological Site of Speci ...

, which has nationally important numbers of

gadwall The gadwall (''Mareca strepera'') is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. Taxonomy The gadwall was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. DNA studies have shown that ...

s and a rare moss. The smallest is Horndon Meadow at ; it is an unimproved hay meadow which has 80 flower species. The whole or part of 6 sites are

Ramsar Ramsar may refer to: * Places so named: ** Ramsar, Mazandaran, city in Iran ** Ramsar, Rajasthan, village in India * Eponyms of the Iranian city: ** Ramsar Convention concerning wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran ** Ramsar site, wetland listed i ...

internationally important wetland sites, 29 are

Sites of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

, 3 are national nature reserves, 4 are

Special Protection Area A Special Protection Area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certa ...

s, 2 are

Special Areas of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

, 7 are

Nature Conservation Review ''A Nature Conservation Review'' is a two-volume work by Derek Ratcliffe, published by Cambridge University Press in 1977. It set out to identify the most important places for nature conservation in Great Britain. It is often known by the initia ...

sites, 2 are a

Geological Conservation Review The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) is produced by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee and is designed to identify those sites of national and international importance needed to show all the key scientific elements of the geological ...

sites, 2 are

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and ...

s and 7 are local nature reserves.

Nature reserves

Key

;Classifications *EWTVC = Essex Wildlife Trust Visitor Centre * GCR = Geological Conservation Review * LNR = Local nature reserve * NCR = Nature Conservation Review * NNR = National nature reserve *

= Internationally important Ramsar wetland site * SAC = Special Area of Conservation * SM = Scheduled monument * SPA = Special Protection Area * SSSI = Site of Special Scientific Interest ;Access * BPA = Access only by prior arrangement with the EWT * EWTO = EWT members only * FP = Access to footpaths only * PP = Access to part of the site * YES = Free public access to all or most of the site

Nature reserves

Key

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External links