Full Speed on Mouse Super highway
Published: February 10, 2010
Our students aren't beating about the bush but doing back-breaking work rebuilding hedgerows to safeguard the lowly dormouse.
They are adding their weight and elbow grease to a national conservation project trying to halt the sharp decline in hazel dormice.
The college has been given funding as part of the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) project, and students have so far rebuilt and filled gaps in 250 metres of college hedgerow.
The countryside management students have also been carrying out a detailed condition survey of other hedgerows which cover the 750-acre campus.
“Our students have been creating wildlife corridors across the estate linking existing hedgerows with woodland, giving creatures safe passage to move about the countryside,” said Lissy Carr, course tutor.
“It’s important work. And by carrying out surveys we build up a clear picture of wildlife habitats to help us improve them.”
Dormice are a protected species and traditionally inhabit woodland scrub and hedgerows.
Dormice populations in Dorset have fallen although hotspots still exist, but in seven English counties it is already extinct.
Where woodland has been chopped down, populations become isolated and find it impossible to move to new habitats to find mates.
Even gaps in woodland of as little as 100 yards can prevent the species spreading.
The PTES project is funded by Natural England and is due to run until March next year.