Report of the Essex Field Club for 2002-2003
English Nature Colchester Office, with the input and help from the Club's recorders and other naturalists
in the county. Although there are still some notable omissions (e.g. lichens), a draft went out for
consultation at the beginning of July 2002, and the provisional lists are now available on the Essex
Field Club website in draft form at www.essexfieldclub.org.uk. In the case of vascular plants, an
additional draft list of potential additions to the file of plants that are now only found in a handful of
sites in the county, despite their absence from either the National Red Data or BSBI Scarce lists, is also
on the website. Several species have been included on the 1 ist that are declining so rapidly that they are
likely to fall into this category within the next few decades. Following further consultation these lists
will be finalised and made widely available during 2003.
In the case of the Diptera, a second phase of Essex Red Data assessment will be put to consultation
when an imminent new national review becomes available. It is hoped that information on groups not
yet covered will soon be added, and that all species will then be assigned habitat codes. When these are
compiled, a full species list will be produced which can be sorted by habitat, an invaluable resource for
focusing biodiversity plans on associated species of conservation concern.
On 17 September the long awaited New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora was published, enabling
the first reassessment of the gains and losses in our Flora on a 10km sq. basis since the first national
Atlas of its kind in 1962. The new classification of our naturalised plants into archaeophytes and
neophytes (introduced by humans pre- or post- AD 1500) will be used to reassess our provisional Red
Data Lists.
All the Essex Red Data files will be made as accurate as possible over the next few months, but they
are intended to remain fluid, in that as changes to the status of individual taxa occur they will from time
to time be updated. Furthermore, extra text details and illustrations will be added as these become
available.
Another major project nearing fruition as a result of recording activity during the year has been the
survey of Hylands Park, Chelmsford, instigated and largely carried out by Mark Hanson with specialist
help for a wide range of groups of organisms. In particular, the discovery of several Red Data list
Diptera characteristic of ancient woodland, has highlighted the extreme conservation value of this
unique site.
Publications
Three further issues of the Newsletter were published, with a further marked improvement in printing
quality resulting from our switch to Jenner (City Print) Tiptree, and clearly no shortage of meaty
articles. The Club's meetings program was for the first time provided as a folded sheet tucked in to the
centre of the May Newsletter, giving a very significant financial saving over the old printed and folded
card. Though there have been some complaints, as it is easier to mislay an A4 sheet than the old card,
this should be rectified next year by printing the program on more obvious coloured paper. The program
is also of course downloadable from the Club's permanent website.
Essex Naturalist No: 19, slightly smaller this year at 163 pages, nevertheless had contributions from 39
different authors, and apart from the usual recorders' reports, featured major articles on the distribution
of the Oxlip, the Glow-worm and the first attempt at a comprehensive summary of the records for a
fungal group, the Boletes; in Essex. Despite being the year of the Foot and Mouth epidemic, Chris
Gibson's wildlife and conservation review for 2001 expanded from 16 pages last year to 22 this year,
once again providing a valuable historical snapshot to compare with changes in our flora and fauna in
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)