FUNDING has been secured for the planting of more than 1,700 metres of hedgerows in mid-Wensleydale to help one of the UK’s most endangered mammals, the Hazel Dormouse.
Dormice had become extinct in the region, but after reintroductions in 2008 and 2016 have regained a foothold in a small area in the east of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Grants of £75,000 from the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and nearly £48,000 from Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) will enable the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) to carry out further conservation work during the next three years.
There will be a chance for landowners and local residents to find out more at an evening talk at Carperby Village Institute at 7pm on Tuesday the 12th of September.
"The new funds are a huge boost for our efforts to join together the fragmented dormouse habitat in mid-Wensleydale,” said Phill Hibbs, Wensleydale Dormouse Project Officer.
"The two hazel woodlands which have seen successful dormice reintroduction – Freeholders Wood near Aysgarth and a site nearby – will become linked with dormouse-friendly hedgerows, so that populations can spread out."
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