Tuesday 18 September 2018

Everybody loves dormice


Cute, sleepy, nocturnal, largely arboreal, and a protected species, dormice numbers have declined by over 70% in two decadesin large part due to habitat fragmentation:
These tiny rodents spend most of their life among trees and can only travel small distances across open ground. As a result, the continued loss and damage of our native woodland and the hedgerows that once connected it has been disastrous.


There are dormice at Straitgate Farm. Aggregate Industries plans to grub up their habitat – some 1500m of ancient hedgerow up to 4m wide. Little suitable replacement habitat is yet in place.

But apparently even the aggregate companies – purveyors of habitat fragmentation – love dormice. No, really. Forget about pesky ecological surveys, development delays, mitigation and compensation – look at this from CEMEX. What better way to greenwash a twitter feed?