💚Thanks to all who joined us on our Love Epping Forest Manifesto Launch Webinar yesterday! It was great to speak to incumbent and prospective candidates, as well as concerned members of the public, about the opportunities the pledges provide for local government to take action and protect Epping Forest for generations to come.
🌳Over the next few weeks leading up to the #localelections in London and Essex on 7th May 2026, we are asking candidates to commit to delivering nine pledges over the next four years.
These pledges have come out of our research and extensive engagement work with the Forest’s local #communities. They are all deliverable by local councillors and they centred around three key themes:
🌱Protecting Nature and Wildlife
🤝Working Together for the Forest
🥾Keeping the Forest Safe and Accessible
If you are a candidate in Epping Forest District, Essex County, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, and Newham, please sign-up to these pledges to demonstrate your love for the Forest and its communities.
If you are a resident local to the Forest, please ask your candidates to sign up to these pledges. #LoveEppingForest
🔗To sign up the pledgers online, or to find out more about our #LoveEppingForest awareness campaign, please visit link in bio, or via: tinyurl.com/LoveEppingForest2026
🌳💚Today, we are delighted to announce the launch of ‘Epping Forest Heritage For All’, a 3-year project funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund @heritagefunduk to celebrate, enjoy and protect the irreplaceable heritage of Epping Forest – for everyone, especially people from underrepresented and underserved communities.
🍃🌳#EppingForest, owned and managed by City of London Corporation @coleppingforest , has long been a cherished place for people and communities. This project will develop partnerships with inclusive, local, community organisations, and create bespoke guided walks, talks, conservation activities and new digital materials. Thanks to National Lottery players, this work will inspire new audiences to connect with the Forest and its natural and cultural heritage, and develop the relationship between people and the Forest.
⭐🙌 Excited to have @bgh_uk and @muslim.hikers as our official partners! Look forward to many exciting collaborations. And thanks to @coleppingforest for supporting this project. If you are a community group interested in getting involved, please reach out! 📩
For more information, please visit link in bio.
📷1: A Big Forest Day out with @eseaoutdoorsuk
📷2: Black Girls Hike Family Walk in collab with The Hive (formerly known as Suntrap Forest Centre )
📷3: Muslim Hikers Epping Forest Walk
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#LoveEppingForest #eppingforestwalks #heritageforall
💚 We're excited to be part of The Highams Park Spring Festival @highamsparkportal this year again with exciting collaborations!
🍃 Come and meet Susan from @fridayschildjewellery and see her jewellery creations inspired by #eppingforest. There will also be jewellery making demos throughout the day. Limited number of jewellry pieces are available to purchase in aid of @eppingforestht 's work to help preserve and protect the Forest that we all so love.
🥾 Join the 'Discover Trees in Epping Forest' #guidedwalk led by Nature Conservationist & Wildlife Photographer Robin @robinwildlife to learn about interesting tree species and their important roles in the ecosystem and human history. This walk is also part of the @urbantreefest
🌳Or simply stop by to say hello! We’d love to hear about your love for the Forest and share family-friendly activities and ways to get involved.
#LoveEppingForest #HighamsParkFestival
🌳💚 A fantastic evening walk on Tuesday led by our Trustee Abi @forestcowboy as part of @urbantreefest . We had a lovely stroll in #EppingForest and learned about some wonderful trees and their roles in the ecosystem and human history.
Thank you to all who joined us at the #guidedwalk , we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. 🍃
The next walk will be this Sunday at Highams Park, visit link in bio to find out more, or via our Eventbrite page: efht.eventbrite.com
#LoveEppingForest #eppingforestwalk
💚 #Throwback 2 weeks ago as part of our office move and clearing out, we donated a range of forest school tools and furniture to The Hive @hiveintheforest Suntrap Forest Centre.
We're glad that these resources will have a second life where they’ll make a real difference, supporting The Hive’s wonderful work in hands-on environmental education, nurturing creativity and nature connection. 🌳
In relation to our office move, the EFHT team is working remotely these few weeks as we continue to figure out our new premises. Please bear with us a bit longer. ☺️
#LoveEppingForest #EppingForest #Partnership
You may have heard that one of the greatest threats #EppingForest now faces is #ClimateChange, but how exactly it impacts the Forest?
Our Trustee Abi @forestcowboy who's also an Environmental Educator at @hiveintheforest (formerly Suntrap), recently wrote a blog explaining the impact:
🌡Higher summer temperatures and reduced rainfall result in drier, more compacted ground, increasing the risk of drought, and in turn increasing the likelihood and severity of forest fires as there is more dry material (fuel) on the forest floor.
💦Conversely, #drought and compaction can prevent rainfall from soaking into the ground, increasing surface runoff and the risk of localised #flooding. Visitors avoiding surface water by venturing off-path could damage the understory of the forest through trampling and compaction, leading to more flooding via a vicious feedback loop.
🐛Rising temperatures can also increase the risk of pathogens and disease. For example, the invasive Oak Processionary Moth caterpillars are expanding their range as they favour warmer temperatures.
🏠 Plans for 68,000 new homes around the Forest over the next 15 years will exacerbate these problems through increased carbon emissions and pollution from vehicular traffic, and damage to the Forest through increased footfall.
To read the full article, and how together we can help protect the irreplaceable Forest for generations to come, please visit link in bio.
🥾 Abi will also lead a #guidedwalk on Tuesday 12th May at 6.30pm at Chingford, looking at trees ranging in age and of different species, where you can also learn about the important roles they play within history and ecosystems. (Guided walks link in bio too)
🌿☀️ What a beautiful day exploring green spaces, community gardens, artist studio and ancient woodland edges of #Walthamstow and #EppingForest
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our Nature & Art in the Neighbourhood #guidedwalk as part of the Urban Tree Festival. Together we discovered how #biodiversity, creativity and community action are helping re-nature our urban spaces, and how we can all play a part to help protect what we have and help nature thrive.
Thank you so much @drew_sharon who led the walk, shared stories about local community gardens, and opened up her artist studio in her wonderful wildlife garden, provided us with a behind the scene glimps on how nature has been an inspiration.
Also a massive shout-out to @timhewittgardener for sharing knowledge and insights of the amazing work at @stmaryswalthamstow church yard in creating fantastic wildlife haven.
The walk ended with a circular trail in Gilbert Slade where we visited some of the oak pollards and veteran hornbeams of Epping Forest — a reminder of how important these spaces are for both wildlife and wellbeing.
Thank you again to everyone who made this walk special 💚
📸 Swipe through for photos
#urbantreefestival
🌱 Will you be joining us this Sunday?
Meet our Conservation Officer Robyn, who'll lead a relaxed guided walk for parents or caregivers with children 0-5 years old. You will learn about #EppingForest, its importance as a unique habitat and what we can do to protect it. There will also be a 30-minute break so that the little ones can experience and explore the environment.
🔗 Find out more about our guided walks programme, please visit link in bio.
#LoveEppingForest #EppingForest #EppingForestWalks
🗳 When you vote in the #LocalElections tomorrow, think about the importance of protecting the natural environment we have left, as well as restoring nature.
🌳 If you are local to #EppingForest, think about who will #LoveEppingForest and pledge to put the Forest at the heart of their decision making.
💚 We are delighted that more than 140 candidates and councillors have already signed up to 9 specific pledges committing to Protect Nature and Wildlife, Work Together for the Forest, and Keep the Forest Safe and Accessible. They represent a wide range of political parties across London (Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Newham) and Essex (Epping Forest District Council, Essex County Council), and will be really important in influencing the future of the Forest.
🔗 To view the full list of pledgers, please visit link in bio, or via: tinyurl.com/LoveEppingForest2026
🌳We are excited to be part of the Urban Tree Festival @urbantreefest again this year. The Urban Tree Festival is an annual community celebration of trees, including their benefits, beauty, majesty, and magic, in cities, towns and all urban environments.
🎨One of our events is Nature and Art in the Neighbourhood - a fantastic collaboration walk with local artist Sharon Drew @drew_sharon , where you will discover pioneer renaturing, an artist's studio and ancient woodland all rolled into one biodiverse walk.
🗓 10am, Saturday, 9th May
📍Walthamstow Central Station
🍃 Visiting churchyards, residential and community-led street gardens plus an artist’s studio visit and an Epping Forest walk. You will meet artist Sharon Drew, inspired by this ethos and showing paintings and landscape/forest studies in her sketchbooks.
🔗 To find out more or to register, visit link in bio. Or via our Eventbrite page: /cc/guided-walks-in-epping-forest-1711419
📸 1: Sharon's studio
📸 2: St Mary's Church yard
📸3: Wildlife garden at Sharon's studio
The last day of April 2026, we are moving out of the Warren Lodge office.
As we clear out what have been accumulated over the past 48 years, it has also been a trip down the memory lane.
We are incredibly humbled by the work from our forebearers: many people and communities and organisations that loved, celebrated, and fought fiercely for the Forest over the years. We are touched by piles of meeting notes, correspondence, records and newspaper clippings from early days of Friends of Epping Forest and Epping Forest Centenary Trust, two of our predecessor organisations. We are also amazed by the wonderful and interesting collections of Forest (and nature) related objects.
It only hits us properly when we see the empty office: we are really moving out, and moving towards a new chapter of the story. We are also absolutely clear that the heart of the story will not change: it is about Epping Forest, the beautiful and irreplaceable ancient Forest that captures the love and memories of generations of people. Together, the work to help preserve and protect it continues.
We are also deeply grateful: thank you so much for all the support, kindness, patience, and generosity during this rather chaotic time. You kindly give us time, lend your skills, make a donation, and much more. Thank you!
The EFHT team will be working remotely in the next few weeks as we continue to figure out our new premises. But you will still see us regularly in the Forest, carrying out woodland conservation activities, guided walks, and community collaborations. May has much to look forward to.
Do keep in touch. Watch this space, sign-up our email newsletter, join our events. Hopefully we will be able to share more updates about new premises soon!
#LoveEppingForest #EppingForest
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📷 1-2. Team in process of office clearing
📷 3-5. Interesting & wonderful finds, including: a stuffed squirrel, deer antler, a wood carving marking the Epping Forest Centenary Walk (now known as Epping Forest Big Walk), and an old Epping Forest map
