THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB
DEPARTMENT OF LIFE SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON
ROMFORD ROAD, STRATFORD,
LONDON, E15 4LZ
NEWSLETTER NO. 24 February 1998
THEPRESIDENT'SPAGE
Charles Watson certainly sparked off some serious letter-writing when he put his article in
Newsletter 21 and Duncan Bridges' response in the next issue was not the only one
received by the Field Club. It seems that just about everyone agrees that there should be
better communication and co-operation between the various natural history bodies in Essex
and, in particular between the Essex Field Club as the main data-gatherers/interpreters and
the Essex Wildlife Trust as the main conservation body (no ... 1 am not forgetting English
Nature!). At the same time that all this discussion has been going on, The Essex Field Club
Council have been regularly lamenting the undoubtedly sorry state of many of the Essex
Wildlife Trust Reserves. Important sites such as Cranham marsh are now so degraded that
their ecological interest is all but lost whilst sites such as Rushey Mead and Roding Valley
Meadows are apparently receiving no management at all! Just down the road from me,
Sawbridgeworth Marsh is also a cause for concern, though some management work does
take place there.
The real problem underlying all of this seems to me to be the lack of proper management
plans for at least those reserves mentioned - perhaps for others too. Having just completed
a commission from the London Wildlife Trust to write management plans for Denham Lock
Wood in Middlesex and Spencer Road Wetland in Surrey I can well understand the reasons.
Proper management plans are time-consuming to produce involving many site visits,
accumulation and assessment of species data and liaison with interested parties such as
English Nature, the Environment Agency and others. The two I have just produced are
around 120 pages each, and these have to be circulated as consultation drafts to a very large
list of people before the final plan is ready. As a consequence they are expensive to
generate. Whilst that makes my accountant very happy, it does little to hasten the
production of proper plans for all the reserves. It is, on the other hand, a matter of
priorities, and I would invite the Trust to consider the wisdom of continually using its
resources to acquire additional reserves if those which they already possess are being lost.
Surely some of the resources could be better placed in the commissioning of management
plans?
Back now to the co-operation issue. We, the Essex Field Club, raised this matter, so we
should take the lead in sorting things out - put our money where our mouths are, so to
speak. I am, therefore, proposing that during 1998 the Club "adopts" an Essex Wildlife
Trust nature reserve and carries out a full data-gathering exercise - free of charge. As a
result of this, the Trust will be in a better position to get a proper management plan sorted
out in 1999. Maybe this will set the ball rolling.
I am therefore proposing we "adopt" Sawbridgeworth Marsh for 1998. We should
endeavour to visit the site at least once every month from March to October and we should
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 24, February 1998