The Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT) has launched its 2025 Christmas Appeal to help one of Britain’s most charming but vulnerable small mammals, the hazel dormouse.
The Shelter Belts for Hazel dormice appeal aims to raise £6,000 to fund essential habitat restoration and footprint monitoring tunnels across six CRT farms, including Green Farm in Farnham and Pierrepont Farm in Frensham, helping to protect and detect dormice before it’s too late.
The appeal is part of the CRT’s Christmas campaign, which you can also support by purchasing the charity’s 2026 wall calendar or the gift of a CRT Friendship to join the charity. See thecrt.co.uk/christmas-at-the-crt-2025. The CRT is a national charity promoting nature-friendly farming to help reverse the biodiversity decline and combat climate change. It owns three farms in Surrey: Green Farm, Pierrepont Farm and Brays Farm in Nutfield.
Once widespread across England and Wales, the Hazel dormouse, a protected species, has declined dramatically over the past two decades.
According to the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme, populations have fallen by 70 per cent since 2000, and the species is now locally extinct in 14 English counties within its historical range. They are currently classified as ‘vulnerable’ to extinction but research in 2023 suggests they should be re-categorised to ‘endangered’.
Ruth Moss, the CRT’s conservation and mapping officer, who is also training to get her Hazel dormouse disturbance licence, enabling her to check dormice nest boxes, said: “Hazel dormice are considered bioindicators because they are sensitive to habitat and population fragmentation. When they are present, there will also be lots of other sensitive species from bats and butterflies to birds and amphibians as their habitat is suitable for a host of different species.
“Through our Christmas appeal, we hope to reconnect fragmented habitat at Turnastone Court Farm, offering dormice greater access to suitable habitat, and also detect where they may be on our other farms so we can improve habitat there in the future too.”
Funds raised through the appeal will support two key nature-friendly farming actions:
- Installing 250 footprint tunnels across six CRT farms in Surrey, Herefordshire and Dorset to detect dormice populations without disturbance.
- Contribute towards creating a new wildlife corridor (shelter belt) at Turnastone Court Farm in Herefordshire, connecting an existing woodland where dormice are known to live to another area of woodland. This will also support the charity’s nature-friendly farming aims as the shelter belt will provide wind protection in the winter to livestock and shelter and shade in the summer.
The footprint tunnels, which record dormouse prints as they pass through, can be checked by the conservation team and CRT’s trained volunteers, allowing large-scale surveys without requiring specialist dormouse licences, as dormice are unlikely to be disturbed.
Ruth added: “This is a wonderful opportunity for people to give something truly meaningful this Christmas.
“Every £5 donation can buy a tunnel to help us detect dormice on our farms, while larger gifts will contribute to the creation of a shelter belt that benefits dormice and many other species, including the farm’s livestock. Healthy hedgerows and connected woodlands provide food, shelter and navigation routes for birds, bats and hedgehogs too.”
Donations will go directly towards dormouse protection work at the following CRT farms:
- Pierrepont Farm and Green Farm (Surrey)
- Turnastone Court Farm and Awnells Farm (Herefordshire)
- Babers Farm and Bere Marsh Farm (Dorset)
How can you help?
Donations can be made online at thecrt.co.uk/appeal/help-save-hazel-dormice-this-christmas
Every gift brings us one step closer to protecting dormice and the other wildlife that share their homes.
Image: Student Katie Morgan checking a dormouse tunnel
