and Round-leaved Sundew. The botanically famous Long Bog at High Beach is now scrubbed over
by birch. Even if it was restored it would be unlikely to survive the horses, mountain bikes, motor
bikes and pedestrians that swarm over the Beach every weekend.
What of the future? The current management strategy, with the recreational needs of the public
taking precedence over conservation, despite the SSSI status of the ancient woodland areas of the
Forest, and the increasing public pressures that the Forest has to withstand, are hardly conducive to
maintenance of a rich bryophyte (or higher plant) flora. It would seem likely that insidious
compromises over the years will promote a steady decline in abundance, and further species
extinctions are therefore probably inevitable. The reintroduction of pollarding, and the decline in
sulphur dioxide pollution, should however, encourage the return of some of the lost epiphytes.
Further reading:
A species by species account of the history and distribution of the Forest bryophyte flora is given
in Adams 1974, and an updated account of the changes in the bryophyte flora of the forest over the
last one hundred years will be published shortly. A detailed account of the SO2 sensitive corticolous
and terrestrial species is given in Adams & Preston 1992.
References:
Adams. K.J. (1974) Bryophytes. In: Jermyn. S. T. Flora of Essex, pp.229-276. Essex Naturalists' Trust Ltd. Colchester.
Adams, K.J. & Preston. CD. (1992). Evidence for the effects of atmospheric pollution on bryophytes from national and local recording, in:
Hardin, P. T. (ed.), Biological Recording o/Changes in British Wildlife. H.M.S.O.
Corley, M.F.V. & Hill, M.O. (1981). Distribution of bryophytes in the British Isles. British Bryological Society Cardiff.
List Of Epping Forest Mosses & Liverworts
225 taxa up to December 1991
Catalogue Numbers and nomenclature follow the DISTRIBUTION OF BRYOPHYTES IN THE
BRITISH ISLES by M.F.V. Corley and M.O. Hill. British Bryological Society. 1981. (except for
55.1 Barbula sinuosa and 85.1 Pohlia annotina).
Taxa in [ ] brackets believed to be extinct. Taxa with * recorded but voucher specimen not yet traced.
89