50 Favourite Trees of the Epping Forest District

In March 2006, Epping Forest District Council made a  successful grant application to the then Local Heritage Initiative (LHI) a branch of the National Lottery. A grant of £24,700 was received that enabled Countrycare to launch the "50 Favourite Trees Project".

Aimed at celebrating the tree heritage of the Epping Forest district, the project was to involve public participation     in a range of walks, talks and a major new interactive website dedicated to our special trees.

In May 2006, a competition was launched to discover the 50 favourite trees of the district. Members of the public   were asked to nominate their favourite tree giving asons why their tree was special to them. We were not just looking for the biggest or the rarest, but we wanted trees which had connections to people and events. Tree nominations were taken between May 2006 and February 2007 and by the close we had received over one hundred and sixty entries. All the nominations were posted on the specially created website Favouritetrees.com with pictures and descriptions of each tree.

The difficult task was to try and select a final 50. In March 2007, we were lucky to assemble a great judging panel including David Jackman (Editor, Epping Forest Guardian), Tracy Clarke (Tim Moya Associates), Jon Stokes, (Director of Rural Programmes, Tree Council), Ken Crowther (BBC Radio Essex), Mark Iley (Project Officer, Essex Biodiversity Partnership) and Tony Kirkham and Jon Hammerton (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew).

The addition of Jon and Tony from Kew gardens was a great boost for the project and we were to recieve national recognition. The filming of the judging and a visit to Thomas Willingale School who had nominated their tree appeared on BBC2's 'The Trees That Made Britain' which aired in May 2008.

Eventually, 50 trees were chosen and then the really hard work really started. Professional photographer John Price was commissioned to photograph each of the winning 50 trees. His brief was to highlight the special qualities of each tree and where possible involve the nominator. The end result was a poster which was created for each tree and this then formed the basis for a major exhibition at the Epping Forest Museum in December 2007. 

Below are just three of the chosen trees. To see photographs and  descriptions of all the 50 winning entries go to the favourite trees database.

So what did the project achieve?

• A Web-based video and pictorial database has been created that will hold all the images of the favourite trees project and the veteran tree hunt.
• Community Engagement - the project involved many members of the public, tree wardens and community groups and most importantly landowners. The public have full access to the tree database.
• Raised the profile of veteran trees - many old trees fall outside the statutory protection of the law. The Favourite Trees project has helped to highlight this and through media coverage and events many trees have been recorded. Only by knowing the location and number of these trees can we protect this unique tree heritage for future generations.

Favourite Trees Book. In April 2008 we were able to produce a book of the     project through funding from the GreenArc. The book contains details of the 50 favourite  trees plus sections on veteran trees, rare trees and educational work we have undertaken. The book had a limited print run, but is now available to download as a pdf (11mb) from the favourte trees website. 

What next? Having created the technology we are now encouraging other Councils or groups in Essex to jojn us. Harlow Council have joined and we are hoping we may be able to extend the project across Essex. Only in this way can protect this unique tree heritage for future generations.

Our focus and emphasis has now switched to the Epping Forest Veteran Tree Hunt.  We are attempting to record and put onto the favourite trees website all the old and important veteran trees across the district. See other pages on this website and the favourite trees website for progress.

If you would like to get involved in the Epping Forest Veteran Tree Hunt contact us or vist the walk, talks, events and volunteering page for news on the next training day.