Dormouse leaves its mark amid a derelict coppice of gnarled old hazels

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/17/wenlock-edge-dormouse-coppice-hazels

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I'm not sure what catches my eye but I think it is the hole in a nut. Looking down, under arching hazels dripping with rain, there is a litter of split shells on the ground, freshly worked, randomly scattered on the muddy track where it ducked into the wood from the lane. Grey squirrels have been rattling through trees with stems thicker than arms reaching 15 feet to form a dense canopy. Such gnarled old hazels are called "derelict coppice", not having been cut for a generation or two. The term suggests a work ethic. For centuries hazel provided materials for building, furniture, fencing, gardening, charcoal, as well as food. The cutting back to grow again is a process that shaped the character of woodland life.

To some, coppicing is essential to woodland management, and without it the woods fall into neglect, disrepute, the conservation equivalent of moral turpitude. To foresters and those intent on standing in for nature, a derelict coppice is a dereliction of duty, and the butterflies and wildflowers that flourish in the open woodland spaces created by coppicing are reason enough for that intrusive kind of management. However, in this neglected, disreputable little enclave of unmanaged hazel, there is a feeling of freedom from human management, a place worked only by the wild things that inhabit it.

I pick a hazelnut from the ground. It's a shiny, brown-as-a-nut brown and has a hole drilled into it. The teeth marks at the edge of the hole are evidence that this is the work of a dormouse. Beautiful marks incised by the arboreal, nocturnal hazel dormouse, the invisible sprite of these woods. I saw one cross the road the other night, a little ginger streak risking all.

I peer into the hole the dormouse crafted in the nut. A darkness, dream-space, sanctuary from the saws and axes of men; a time capsule in which to ride out autumnal storms and history. A gift filled with luck, I put it in my pocket.

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