CONSERVATION
&
MANAGEMENT
ESSEX WILDLIFE TRUST FOCUS:
VIEWS FROM THE NATURE RESERVES OF ESSEX
A new and, it is hoped, regular section begins this year for Essex Naturalist. In this section, Essex
Wildlife Trust Focus, an article or several papers will be devoted to the important wildlife and
conservation issues on some of Essex Wildlife Trust's reserves. It is hoped these will be written by
staff or volunteers working for the Trust and that the Naturalist can provide a useful vehicle for the
communication of the more detailed conservation work and monitoring that the Trust tackles in its
8,000 acres and more of land devoted to wildlife. This year it is kicked off by a short article by the
Trust's new Conservation Officer about a tiny and little-known reserve in south-west Essex. - Edi-
tor.
Hawksmere Springs Nature Reserve - a wildlife oasis
ANDREW MAY
Conservation Manager, Essex Wildlife Trust, Abbotts Hall Farm, Great Wigborough,
Colchester, C05 7RZ
Abstract
Hawksmere Springs Nature Reserve comprises ancient unimproved grassland, with a tiny remnant
of ancient damp woodland, with the whole reserve surrounded by an ancient hedgerow. The
grasslands contain the nationally-scarce community type MG5 - a Cynosurus cristatus - Centaurea
nigra grassland. Despite its isolation and tiny size the area also contains regional rarities, such as
Sulphur Clover, Roesel's Bush-cricket, Yellow Archangel, Betony, Devil's-bit Scabious and Hard
Shield Fern. This small reserve, therefore, is still important as a local, regional and national resource.
Introduction
Hawksmere Springs Nature Reserve covers an area of 1.7 hectares (4.2 acres) and lies approximately
700 metres north-east of the hamlet of Stapleford Tawney, 5 kilometres south-east of Epping and
within Epping Forest District The reserve contains a mixture of habitats that are of national,
regional and local significance. The reserve encompasses ancient unimproved grassland with pockets
of encroaching scrub and meandering through a relict of an ancient woodland is a stream emanating
from a spring which lies within the reserve. With an ancient boundary hedgerow as part of it, the
site was purchased by Essex Wildlife Trust in 1984.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 19 (2002)
91