Acknowledgements
A number of people helped to provide information for this work, and 1 would particularly like to
thank Alwyne Wheeler for providing much information on a wide variety of the Epping Forest
mammals, the Head Forest Keeper. Mr. P. Liquorish, and the Assistant Head Forest Keeper. Mr. N.
P. Eade. for providing information on several mammals, especially the deer, and the staff at the Epping
Forest Conservation Centre, High Beach, for allowing me access to their records of mammals. I am
also grateful to Dr. F. Hughes and Mr. J. Griffiths for helpful replies to requests for information.
References
Chapman. D. I. (1977) Deer of Essex. Essex Naturalist No. 1. The Essex Field Club. Passmore Edwards Museum.
Corbet. G. B. and Southern. H. N. (Eds) (1977) The Handbook of British Mammals. Blackwell Scientific Publications. Oxford.
Corke. D. (1979) The Mammals of Epping Forest in Corke. D. (Ed.) The Wildlife of Epping Forest. Essex Naturalist No. 4. The Essex Field
Club, Passmore Edwards Museum.
Corke. D. and Harris. S. (1972) The Small Mammals of Essex. Essex Naturalist. 33 32-59.
Cowlin, R. A. D. (1972) The distribution of the Badger in Essex. Essex Naturalist. 33 1-8
Harris. S (1974) The History and Distribution of Squirrels in Essex. Essex Naturalist. 33 64-78.
Mickleburgh, S. (1987) Distribution and Status of Bats in the London Area. The London Naturalist. 6 41-91.
Snow. K. R. (1985) Lice of the Grey Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin in Epping Forest. The London Naturalist. 64 41-42.
Snow. K. R. and Ball. S. J. (1984) Fleas of the Grev Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin in Epping Forest. The London Naturalist, 63
121-122.
Nature Conservation Status and Management
The Epping Forest Act of 1878 made the Corporation of the City of London Conservators of the Forest.
The management of the Forest is vested in the Epping Forest Committee.
Official recognition of the Forest as a place of national importance for semi-natural vegetation came
in 1931 when the National Parks Committee, one of whose terms of reference was to consider what,
if any, measures were needed to conserve flora and fauna in National Parks, recorded evidence by the
Ramblers and Pedestrian Associations saying that Epping and Hainault Forests should become
National Parks. National Parks were then expected to be managed with the preservation of flora and
fauna as one of the objectives.
The biological status of Epping Forest was confirmed in 1947. It was one of 73 nationally important
sites listed in the Report of the Wildlife Conservation Special Committee presented to Parliament.
In 1949 the newly-formed Nature Conservancy adopted these sites as the nucleus of a series of
National Nature Reserves.
Much of the Forest north of the Ranger's Road was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest
in 1953 in accordance with Section 23 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949
(Ranson. 1978). Many other parts of the Forest have since been added, among them Hawk Wood.
Lords Bushes, the Hatch Forest area, Highams Park, Walthamstow Forest, Gilbert Slade, Leyton Flats
and a small area on Wanstead Flats.
In 1956 there was a formal exchange of letters between the Corporation and the Nature Conservancy
on the maintenance of the Forest's scientific and nature conservation interest.
Following a country-wide survey of over 2000 outstanding sites in Great Britain, the national
importance of the Forest was reaffirmed by the Nature Conservancy Council (Rateliffe 1977).
Epping Forest is the largest tract of wood-pasture, including habitats such as pollard trees, neutral
grassland, grass-heath, wet-heath, pond, marsh, Streamside and bog in south-east England.
The Nature Conservancy Council (now English Nature), as a means of assessing the conservation
status of a particular species, has produced the Red Data Book. In this assessment, taxa are categorised
according to their rarity, their vulnerability to habitat destruction or their propensity to decline, each
species being graded.
Red Data Book 1 (RDB1) Endangered: includes species which are known in the U.K. from only a
single 10 km square; species which occur in a vulnerable habitat; species in which the population has
shown a rapid and continuous decline over the last twenty years and also species believed extinct in
the U.K.
Red Data Book 2 (RDB2) Vulnerable: includes species likely to move into the endangered category
if the causal factors continue operating, usually the destruction of their habitat.
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