Essex Wildlife Trust is one of 46 Wildlife Trusts which cover the United Kingdom. Essex Wildlife Trust was founded in 1959, and it describes itself as Essex's leading conservation charity, which aims to protect wildlife for the future and the people of the county. As of 2026, it has 40,000 members, runs almost 100 nature reserves and 11 Nature Discovery Centres.
Essex has one of the longest coastlines of any English county, with saltmarshes, lagoons, mudflats, grazing marshes, reedbeds and shingle. Its ancient forests were formerly important to the local economy, with wood being used for fuel, construction and bark in the tanning industry. Coppicing is being re-introduced by the Trust to encourage woodland grasses, flowers, invertebrates and birds. A few grasslands on the heavy clays of south- and mid-Essex are still grazed according to traditional methods, supporting a mixture of pasture and fen. Some brownfield sites, often on contaminated soil, have populations of nationally scarce species, particularly invertebrates.
Essex Wildlife Trust's first site was Fingringhoe Wick, which was established in 1961; its visitor centre has views over the Colne Estuary. The largest site is the Hanningfield Reservoir, which has nationally important numbers of gadwalls and a rare moss. The smallest is Horndon Meadow at ; it is an unimproved hay meadow which has 80 flower species. The whole or part of 6 sites are Ramsar internationally important wetland sites, 29 are Sites of Special Scientific Interest, 3 are national nature reserves, 4 are Special Protection Areas, 2 are Special Areas of Conservation, 7 are Nature Conservation Review sites, 2 are a Geological Conservation Review sites, 2 are scheduled monuments and 7 are local nature reserves.
Nature reserves
Key
Classifications EWTVC = Essex Wildlife Trust Visitor Centre GCR = Geological Conservation Review LNR = Local nature reserve NCR = Nature Conservation Review NNR = National nature reserve Ramsar = Internationally important Ramsar wetland site SAC = Special Area of Conservation SM = Scheduled monument SPA = Special Protection Area SSSI = Site of Special Scientific Interest
Access BPA = Access only by prior arrangement with the EWT EWTO = EWT members only FP = Access to footpaths only PP = Access to part of the site YES = Free public access to all or most of the site