The Essex Wildlife Trust is one of 47 wildlife trusts which cover the United Kingdom. The EWT 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 January 2017, it has over 34,000 members and runs 87 nature reserves, 2 nature parks and 11 visitor 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 EWT 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.The EWT'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 400-hectare Hanningfield Reservoir, which has nationally important numbers of gadwalls and a rare moss. The smallest is Horndon Meadow at 0.8 hectares ; 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.
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