Rare dormice have been recorded for the first time in an ancient Woodland Trust wood near Chelmsford thanks to the diligence of a local volunteer naturalist.
Graham Hart focused his hunt for the tiny, endangered and iconic mouse within the picturesque Swan and Cygnet wood close to Stock village after Trust woodland officer Al Crosby suggested the publicly-accessible site as potential dormouse habitat.
Graham had been searching the locality for the nocturnal and extremely elusive dormouse for three years without success but his search eventually paid off at Swan and Cygnet Wood. “I was delighted,” said Graham, who trained to be a fully licensed dormouse monitor last year.
He is a member of The Essex & Suffolk Dormouse Project who, in collaboration with The Essex Wildlife Trust, use volunteers to undertake surveys of potential dormouse sites using survey 'tubes'. These are checked for signs of empty summer nests when dormice are hibernating in the winter.
“I knew there were some dormice records in the Chelmsford area so I wanted to confirm their presence at Swan and Cygnet Woods too if possible,” he said.
“When I found evidence of their nests in the survey ‘tubes’ I secured a PTES grant for permanent nest boxes which The Woodland Trust volunteers helped me put up. A licensed survey confirmed a large number of dormice using these boxes. Woodland Trust Volunteers have since been managing areas in the wood to help the dormice.”
“This is an important find.” said Graham “It will help us reconnect locally isolated dormice populations as part of the PTES Hedgerows For Dormice Project.”
The find is significant; according to the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) whose Great Nut Hunt is recording the incidence of dormice, particularly its spread into new territory.
Graham’s is one of only ten monitoring projects in the county, but his find confirms growing incidence of dormice in Essex, confirms PTES development manager Nida Al-Fulaij who said:
“This is a new dormouse wood for our records, so good news for dormice and good news for Essex”.
“Dormouse numbers have declined over the last hundred years because of huge changes in our countryside. Woodland management practices such as coppicing have fallen out of fashion and large tracts of hedgerow have disappeared. We have been coordinating the efforts of hundreds of dedicated volunteers like Graham Hart in monitoring the remaining populations of dormice, and their efforts are paying off.
She appealed for volunteers to join Graham in the separate Hedgerows for Dormice programme and the practical work underway at Hanningfield Reservoir. Details are on www.ptes.org/hedgerows
Woodland Trust dormouse specialist Sandy Williamson confirmed a number of dormouse monitoring projects in Trust woods, most in the south east because of its greater woodland cover.
“They will ‘travel’ between woods if they are connected with what we call wildlife corridors, such as good hedge networks. In woods where we know we have dormouse we leave overhanging branches when widening rides and create pinch points to help them move across.”
“Dormice don’t just eat hazelnuts, they have quite a wide diet so need a wide range of food sources at different times of the year. Our work with woodland extension and new woodland creation helps increase their habitat.”
Swan Wood is an ancient woodland site, with slopes and streams, coppicing and pollarding. Internal woodbanks, remnants of a medieval boundary and bluebells that burst into delightful colour each May bear testimony to its ancient origins.
The wood has been extended all around and on one side the Woodland Trust created a Woods on Your Doorstep site, Cygnet Wood, to celebrate the millennium. A meadow is grazed by horses and there is an old restored pond.
To help find and protect more populations of dormice through the PTES Great Nut Hunt - and download a survey pack - please visit www.greatnuthunt.co.uk Notes to editors
For media enquiries contact:
The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121, email: media@woodlandtrust.org.uk
The Woodland Trust:
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 300,000 members and supporters.
The Trust has three key aims: i) to enable the creation of more native woods and places rich in trees ii) to protect native woods, trees and their wildlife for the future iii) to inspire everyone to enjoy and value woods and trees
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). Access to its sites is free.