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The Essex Naturalist
Naturally, a one day study cannot give a conclusive picture of forest car park
usage, but an impression is given that the southern car parks receive more cars
than those north of the Wake Arms roundabout. Such a result is not
controversial.
To date visitor numbers to the forest are increasing each year, as shown in
table 9. The Information Centre is at High Beach in the north of the forest.
These figures are taken from the records kept at the Information Centre, which
opened in July 1993 (hence small figure for that year).
Table 9: Number of visitors to Epping Forest Information Centre.
Total figures up to July 1997 are 22,113, as compared to 18,903 to July 1996.
Roadkill Statistics
In the absence of sufficient resources to conduct a comprehensive deercount in
relation to visitor pressure in the southern forest, Corporation of London
roadkill statistics are used to indicate relative abundance of the deer. These data
covered 1992 - 1995 and were taken from Langbein, 1996. Roadkills reported to
me by the keepers for 1997 are also vised, see Fig. 3.
Discussion
Evidence for the historical hypothesis
Deer were found in quiet areas around the forest, as this hypothesis predicted.
Most notable among these were the findings at Wake Arms, where it would
appear one of the largest concentrations of deer is to be found within the forest
itself. Unfortunately, no numbers are available for deer here, although Langbein
estimates there may be as many as 50 in the forest including at Epping Thicks
and Claypit Hill (Langbein 1996). Epping Thicks is, as its name suggests, a
particularly thick and impenetrable piece of woodland, and as a consequence is
rarely visited by people. From our study no recent signs were found of the deer
crossing the A104 to get to the agricultutal land on the opposite side, so perhaps
the forest has sufficient grazing in this area to support the deer if they are
present. The keeper Mick Collins stated that the deer use this area of forest
principally in the winter, as much of the woodland here is evergreen holly, and
provides good cover when the deciduous trees in the other parts of the forest
have lost their leaves. Thus the tallow could have abandoned this area before
our fieldwork began in May.