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Epping Forest Heritage Trust: Our Impact 2025-2026

Epping Forest Heritage Trust's Our Impact 2025-2026 report covers the first year of its 2025-2030 strategy, including delivering 50% more conservation sessions than the previous year. The Trust welcomed over 12,500 people to the Forest through the Visitor Centre at High Beach, guided over 305 people on 14 free monthly walks and supported over 1,109 people to connect with the Forest through 28 co-created community activities. Volunteers gave 4,487 hours across 156 conservation sessions, and the Trust built 24 leaky dams and planted 4,040 hedgerow whips for the City of London's Climate Action Strategy.

Report snapshot
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About

Epping Forest Heritage Trust is a charity based at The Warren Lodge, Loughton, that works to protect Epping Forest and help people enjoy, understand and care for it, through its visitor centre, guided walks, community engagement, practical conservation volunteering and policy and planning work.

Key Metrics

12,500+ people welcomed to the Forest through the Visitor Centre at High Beach
4,487 volunteer hours from 521 volunteers in 156 conservation sessions
1,109+ people supported to connect with the Forest through community engagement

Key Outcomes

  • 50% more conservation sessions delivered than the previous year
  • 24 leaky dams built and 4,040 hedgerow whips planted for the City of London's Climate Action Strategy
  • The Happy Loppers, a team of people with learning disabilities, delivered 1,615 hours of volunteer time across 36 conservation sessions

Geography

East of England

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
5,999 active volunteers contributed 776,242 hours in 2025/26
Key Metric 2
137 winter maintenance projects across 45 canals; 109 lock gates replaced
Key Metric 3
101,640 children participated in Explorers/STEM outdoor learning, including 67,896 water-safety participants
Over 80% of the network kept fully open despite drought.
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
The Eco-Schools programme reached over 1.4 million pupils, with 2,162 schools awarded the Eco-Schools Green Flag in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
326,000 volunteers pledged to the Great British Spring Clean, picking up 425,626 bags of rubbish, supported by 288 local authorities and parish councils
Key Metric 3
2,227 Green Flag Awards given to parks and green spaces in the UK; 151 beaches given a Blue Flag and/or Seaside Award
98.3% of educators felt the Eco-Schools programme significantly supports young people's development of 'green skills'
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
First known breeding success of spoonbills in the Norfolk Broads in around 400 years, recorded at Hickling Broads and Marshes
Key Metric 2
Over 60 nature reserves managed across Norfolk, with land owned or managed for wildlife exceeding 5,000 hectares
Key Metric 3
1,500 volunteers helped protect wildlife across the county during the year
New urban nature reserve co-designed with the local community, expanding accessible green space in Norfolk
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
61,819 native oysters deployed across UK restoration projects in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
15,064 people participated in the Beachwatch beach clean programme, submitting 1,256 litter surveys — the highest in the programme's 31-year history
Key Metric 3
17,613 young people engaged through in-person or online youth programme sessions
£11.5 billion Ofwat investment package secured for storm overflow cuts in England and Wales following sustained MCS advocacy