Our work at Hatfield Forest

A National Trust ranger creating a coppice using a chainsaw at Hatfield Forest, Essex — A National Trust ranger creating a coppice at Hatfield Forest, Essex | © Elliot Neale

Hatfield Forest National Nature Reserve is a managed landscape, created by centuries of human intervention. Learn how we continue the traditions and practices of those who've previously cared for our special place, so we can ensure it lasts for everyone, for ever.

Nature Recovery

While Hatfield Forest may look like other forests or woods you’ve visited, it’s actually a National Nature Reserve and a Site of Specific Scientific Interest, so there are steps we must all take to look after it and keep it special for everyone. Hatfield Forest’s roots can be traced back hundreds of years, and today it welcomes nearly half a million visits every year, that’s twice as many as over a decade ago, which is a lot of pressure upon nationally important wildlife.

The Forest’s rides (footpaths) are particularly at risk, so to help manage the most vulnerable paths, we need to let some rest and recover. We periodically monitor the health of our paths by scientifically examining the vegetation and bare ground in different zones. We’re already seeing good signs of recovery, but there is still more to do and nature needs time to rest, recover and rejuvenate.

The Forest’s rides and Forest edges are the most species rich habitat across the whole of Hatfield Forest. Gaps in the Forest canopy allows warmth and sunlight to reach the Forest floor, promoting a diverse range of ground flora and invertebrates. This in turn attracts birds and mammals to feed, and reptiles to bask. Nationally rare species such as Nightingales, Purple Emperor Butterflies and Slow Worms are amongst the thousands of species that call this valuable habitat home, which unfortunately, is in decline across the country.

You will find diversions in place where paths have been closed for their protection, so please help us by finding another route and giving the path, and nature time to recover. In the depths of Winter, if you come across a very muddy path, please retrace your steps and find an alternate route as walking along the edges will widen the path causing further damage.

Ecological Monitoring at the Forest

Hatfield Forest is a living record of nearly a thousand years of continuous management, and today it remains one of the most ecologically rich landscapes in lowland Britain. To safeguard this unique biodiversity, a programme of ecological monitoring is carried out across the Forest. From veteran trees and ancient wood pasture to rare ground flora and diverse insect populations, monitoring helps us understand how the ecosystem is changing over time, assess the impacts of management, and ensure that conservation actions are evidence-led. Ecological monitoring provides an insight into the ‘state of nature’ at Hatfield Forest in a rapidly evolving landscape, and steers the long-term care of this nationally significant site.

Ecological monitoring timeline

1 March 2025

March

March marks the start of the ecological monitoring season at Hatfield Forest, where staff and volunteers begin surveying for and monitoring nature within the Forest. It also marks the start of bird nesting season, which means many of our forestry and habitat management operations are paused to minimise disturbance. Much of the preliminary work for ecological monitoring involves preparing and setting up sites and equipment for different projects. To start, we set up trail cameras to monitor badger and other mammal activity throughout the year and to identify active badger setts around the Forest.

We also put out static bird recorders up in trees around the Forest to capture bird song throughout the seasons and to help us understand which habitats our resident and migratory bird species are using. The recordings are taken at regular intervals and continuously stored on the devices, before being analysed back at the office to work out which birds are singing.

Lastly, to keep track of our reptile populations, we set reptile mats, or ‘refugia’ as they are known, across different habitats in the Forest. The mats comprise squares of material that absorb heat and attract reptiles on sunny days. The warm surfaces offer the perfect basking opportunities for the cold-blooded reptiles, which gives us the opportunity to monitor numbers and species by checking under the mats periodically to see what’s there. Though we don’t start surveying until April, we have to set the mats up a few weeks in advance to allow them time to ‘bed in’ and for the vegetation to grow around them

A badger captured by a trail camera at Hatfield Forest, Essex | © Georgia Arnold

A bird recorder set up in a tree in Emblems Coppice, Hatfield Forest, Essex | © Georgia Arnold

A group of people dressed in bright colours parade across an open plain at Hatfield Forest — The Mother Earth Forest Parade at Hatfield Forest part of the Essex Cultural Diversity Project in 2024 | © Elliot Neale

Essex Cultural Diversity Project in the Forest

In 2024 Essex Cultural Diversity Project and the National Trust invited proposals for a creative project to mark the 100th anniversary of the gifting of Hatfield Forest to the National Trust, which would celebrate this unique and vulnerable ancient site, and help articulate the importance of philanthropy, acts of kindness and calls to action that enthuse and inspire us to all care for the environment and our communities.

Kirsty and Wayward’s project, A Common Way looked to extend Hatfield Forest’s hundred-year-old act of care and community into today’s local landscape, harnessing the power of queer ecofeminism, an ideology that aims to break binaries and acknowledge the diversity of the natural world and humanity’s connection with it.

They launched their project with a Queer Ecology Solstice Spell as part of National Trust’s Midsummer celebrations, delivered intimate workshops in the forest for women and members of the LGBTQ+ community, and led a Mother Earth Forest Parade, inviting all to dress up and drag up in forest campery, with mask-making workshops for all.

From these experiences and exchanges Kirsty and Wayward have developed a pack of cards A Common Way: a walking tarot of the wild ways of the wood, which proposes a new way to explore and navigate the woods through a series of acts of care and connection with nature. Each participant was gifted with a set of limited edition ‘walking tarot’, and visitors to Hatfield Forest were invited to take part in an ‘Acts of Care’ treasure hunt using the cards as inspiration.

The Shell House Restoration

The much-loved Shell House at the centre of the Forest was restored to its former glory after a five-month restoration project which concluded in mid-2023, thanks to a generous gift left in a will.

The restoration was carried out by Cliveden Conservation and included repairs to the timber structure, laths and the lime render, involving highly skilled and intricate work. Using traditional techniques and following original patterns, knapped flint, blue glass slag and a variety of exotic and native shells have been fixed to the outer walls using original materials where possible.

Following the restoration of the exterior, a deep conservation clean has been carried out. Visitors can once again step inside this beautiful building. If the door is locked, please ask a member of staff in the lakeside area to give you access.

Conservation grazing

Forest sheep

We have a flock of about 30 heritage breed sheep, mainly Hebridean, plus some Jacob and Manx. These are used to graze areas of the Forest where we have previously cleared scrub, to encourage the final phase of regeneration. Sheep are far less fussy than cattle, so will eat brambles and hawthorn. They are present all year round and cause less damage to the ground.

Red Poll cattle

From early May to late October, the plains are grazed by Red Poll cattle. They are natural lawnmowers, helping to keep down scrubby plants and so encouraging the growth of native wildflowers.

Monitoring changes

Crayfish project

The lake has a population of signal crayfish. This is a non-native, invasive species, introduced from North America. We are undertaking a wide-ranging study to assess their ecological impact, including trapping, removal and study.

Deer

Over the last decade we have been carefully monitoring our deer population of fallow deer and muntjac. Students work with our volunteers using a variety of different methods to estimate deer populations. Thermal imaging cameras, dung counts along a transect and counting the number of paths leading into the coppices all help us to determine how best we can manage the health of the herd.

Beetles

Beetles are one of the many invertebrate species we monitor in the Forest. We have a number of Red Data Book species which are internationally rare or endangered. By tracking changes in their numbers, we can identify the effects of changes in climate, pollution and habitat robustness.

Butterflies

We have been carrying out butterfly surveys since 2005. Our volunteers learn to identify the different species and familiarise themselves with the survey routes. They walk these routes every day (weather-permitting) and record what they see.

Silver washed fritillaries mating, Ashclyst Forest, Killerton, Devon — Silver-washed fritillaries mating | © National Trust Images/Fi Hailstone

Tree management

Woodland coppices

Our volunteers continue the traditional management technique of coppicing, to encourage new growth. They work throughout the winter cutting coppice poles in Elgin's Coppice and protecting the stumps.

Pollards

Hatfield Forest has over 850 veteran pollard trees, each with its own management plan. The aim is to keep the trees alive as long as possible.

Once dead, we try to keep the trees standing by turning them into monoliths, by removing all the branches. Standing deadwood is a rare and therefore more valuable habitat than fallen deadwood. Once fallen, deadwood rots quickly and so the habitat is lost.

Restoring wood pasture

One of the special features of Hatfield Forest is the open areas between the coppices, known as wood pastures. These include ancient, sometimes pollarded, trees and provide a rich habitat. We are undertaking a long-term project to restore a 25-hectare area in the north west of the Forest by Elmans Green, as well as creating some new pollards.

It is with this ongoing project that we then hope to establish new wood pasture at a landscape level, creating a mosaic of habitats for wildlife whilst developing one of the Forest’s key features for the enjoyment of future visitors.

The Wall Wood Restoration project

Wall Wood is ancient coppice woodland adjacent to Hatfield Forest. This is important for its wildflowers such as the violet helleborine, bluebell and the nationally scarce oxlip.

Woodland wildlife has declined dramatically over the past 30 years, largely due to increasing fallow and muntjac deer pressure, resulting in habitat loss. With help from Natural England and the Forestry Commission, we have decided to halt this wildlife decline by re-commencing coppicing and protecting the young growth from deer again, after a 50-year gap.

Restoring the historic lakeside parkland

The Shell House was built in the 1750s to provide a shelter for parties visiting the Forest from nearby Hallingbury Place. Evidence from the late nineteenth century suggests that the area in front of the Shell House was laid to lawn and the eastern bank was planted with a few specimen trees, allowing fine views across the lake.

The team has undertaken a programme of work to restore this part of the Capability Brown landscape. They have replanted native trees and created a variety of new habitats for wildlife to flourish. Visitors are now able to enjoy newly restored views across the main lake and towards the Decoy lake.

Past projects

Restoring Woodside Green

Woodside Green lies to the south of Hatfield Forest, next to Wall Wood. It is mainly open pasture, with a few isolated mature trees. Maps from over 100 years ago show there were many more trees there, mostly around the margins. We secured funding from the People's Postcode Lottery to restore this historic parkland.

Trees were planted in late 2018. Species planted included hawthorn, sessile oak, hornbeam and crab apple. It was probably a wider range of species than were grown on the Green in the past, but all are native to the locality. Over time, we will see the slow restoration of this historic landscape, revitalising one of the largest grazed commons in Essex.

The marsh

In 2010 we started a project to restore the marsh area between the lake and London Bridge. The marsh had slowly been taken over by scrub (shrubby tree regrowth) and this was changing the habitat. To maintain the marsh and increase biodiversity we removed the scrub. A year later some dormant species had returned.

Kingfisher bank

Across the nation, kingfisher numbers have been dropping and the rise in water levels has meant their habitats are being lost. To counteract this problem, our volunteer rangers built an artificial kingfisher bank. Thanks to this, we now have two resident kingfishers who can occasionally be spotted in the Marsh and on the Decoy Lake.