Country Life Trending: Credit: Wild Dales Photography - Simon Phillpotts / Alamy The dormice of Wensleydale will have a nice surprise as they awaken from hibernation this year, thanks to a major conservation effort over the past few months. Annunciata Elwes explains. Two fledgling populations of native endangered dormice in Wensleydale should now be waking from their winter slumber to discover a bigger, wider world, as local landowners and farmers have completed a six-mile corridor of woodland and hedgerow either side of Freeholders’ Wood at Aysgarth Falls. The three-year Wensleydale Dormouse Project, which is funded by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), Woodland Trust, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and Millennium Trust, among others, is part of the PTES’s National Dormouse Monitoring Programme. Giving the populations room to roam is vital, as dormice are almost entirely arboreal and need to be able to walk along branches, hopping from one tree or bush to another.