Research & data
What the woodlands tell us
Every nest box we open adds a line to a story more than a decade long. Here you’ll find what our monitoring reveals — and the reports we publish each year.
Why we monitor
Counting what counts
You can’t protect what you don’t understand. From April to October our licensed volunteers check hundreds of nest boxes across our dormouse woodlands every month — recording each dormouse found, its weight, sex and condition, and every nest along the way.
Season by season, those careful records build into something bigger: a long-term picture of how Nottinghamshire’s dormice are really faring, and whether our conservation work is making a difference.
The national picture
Where the numbers go
Our checks form part of the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme, and everything we record flows into the National Dormouse Database, run by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species. Alongside hundreds of sites across Britain, our three woodlands help reveal how the species is doing nationally — and shape how it’s protected.
Findings
Annual reports & findings
Each year we gather the season’s monitoring into an annual report — what we found, how the population is changing, and what we’re planning next. Reports published here are free to read and share.
Our first reports — covering the 2024 and 2025 seasons — are being prepared for the website and will appear here soon.
Be part of the count
Help gather next season’s numbers
Every record on this page began with a volunteer opening a nest box on a quiet morning. No experience is needed — just curiosity and a free weekend morning now and then.