Tree rope bridges help dormice travel safely

MINI rope bridges have been built to help dormice travel between trees after ash dieback in the Forest of Dean.

Forestry England said it was providing the bridges to enable hazel dormice to “travel safely between woodlands” after trees were damaged by the disease.

The removal of diseased ash trees from a woodland in Flaxley, in the forest, left the animals’ habitats disconnected. The agency built two 20-metre long bridges that run 16-feet high over a forest road.

Forestry England said hazel dormice needed woodland or hedgerow trees and shrubs to live and feed during the warmer months and rarely come to the ground, preferring to travel around underneath treetops or shrub cover.

Kate Wollen, area ecologist at Forestry England, said dormice only tend to come to ground for hibernation.

“They feel vulnerable to predators when on the ground and while these bridges do not replace the trees that had to be felled, they will enable dormice to feel safer as they cross from one part of the wood to another,” she said.

Chalara ash dieback, caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, developed among a section of trees where dormice are monitored, Forestry England said. The fungus blocks the tree’s water transport system, causing leaf loss and lesions in the wood and on the bark, a spokesman said. “While the hazel dormouse population has declined across the country, the Forest of Dean remains an important habitat for these tiny creatures. The bridges took less than two days to install and over the summer trail cameras will be fitted to monitor the dormice using them,” the spokesman said.

Leoni Dawson, a community ranger, added: “We could not have accomplished this project without the help of our volunteers. Together we have worked very hard in this woodland improving habitat for the wildlife and flora. One of our volunteers has been surveying for dormice here for over 20 years.

“We hope the bridges will complement this work and that dormice will do well.”