Essex Wildlife Trust, Abbotts Hall Farm, Gt Wigborough, Colchester, Essex CO5 7RZ
Essex habitats
Essex Wildlife 2000 - a vision for the 21st century was prepared by the conservation staff and conservation committee of the Essex Wildlife Trust. It presents a vision of the Essex countryside as it could be in the 21st century, when wildlife is varied, abundant and in some way close to everyone.
Since its formation in 1959 the Essex Wildlife Trust has been concerned with protecting the county's wildlife for the people of Essex to enjoy. During the 1990s we completed a major survey of the county, field by field and wood by wood, cataloguing the countryside and its habitats in more detail than ever before – a Domesday survey of land use in the last decade of the millenium. The results give solid foundation to the goals laid out in this report.
The inventory confirms how many rich and diverse habitats the county still retains: coastal marshes, purple with sea-lavender and mazed with muddy creeks, famed for their birdlife; venerable coppices and forests, home to many special plants and beetles; areas of ancient landscape still framed by hedges rich in trees and shrubs.
In stark contrast it also reflects how badly some of our wildlife has suffered during the last 100 years: most of the old flower-rich grassland gone; meandering rivers canalized and holding water no longer fit enough to support otters; heathlands once rich in colour and insects, either ploughed or wooded over; farmland with fewer flowers, insects and birds than ever before.
Our objectives are clear: to build on our existing strengths by increasing the diversity and size of existing sites good for wildlife; to maintain ancient and marginal landscapes for their optimum, not high intensity, use; to replace some of the habitats that have suffered most loss. This blueprint suggests how depleted habitats can be expanded, re-created and incorporated into a working countryside; how even the most intensive agricultural and urban landscapes can be enriched; how, when landscape changes do occur, the opportunities they provide for wildlife gain can be seized.
It is a powerful vision, in which the magic of our Essex wildlife is accessible to everyone! It is intended to make you stop and think what you can do for the future of the Essex countryside.