A home for nature in the heart of the valleys
On Endangered Species Day, we pause to reflect on the fragile and the fierce — and on what it means to stand in the corner of species that cannot speak for themselves.
Nestled in the hillside above Caerphilly, Coed y Werin — the People’s Wood — is more than a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is a living, breathing refuge: a place where ancient woodland meets open common, where the rare and the remarkable have found sanctuary because people cared enough to fight for it.
Today, on Endangered Species Day, Caerphilly Woodlands Trust celebrates not just the species that call this place home, but the quiet, sustained work that makes that possible.
Our dormice: small, sleepy, and extraordinary
The hazel dormouse — Muscardinus avellanarius — is one of Britain’s most beloved and most threatened small mammals. Listed as a Priority Species under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, its decline over the past century has been dramatic. Coed y Werin is one of its strongholds in south Wales.
Our dormouse monitoring work is carried out with care and precision by our volunteer ecologists under a Natural Resources Wales licence. Nest boxes are checked through the season by trained volunteers, recording occupancy, condition, and breeding signs. Every sighting is a small victory and every data point contributes to the national picture of where this charismatic creature is hanging on.
“A dormouse weighing less than a pound coin, asleep in a nest of honeysuckle bark, is a reason to protect an entire wood.”
The dormice of Coed y Werin depend on structural diversity, the layered understorey of hazel coppice, honeysuckle, bramble, and woodland edge that we work to maintain. Every act of conservation here is, in part, an act of dormouse husbandry.
Watching the adders
The adder — Vipera berus – is Britain’s only venomous snake and another species in sharp decline. Persecution, habitat loss, and fragmentation have taken their toll. At Coed y Werin and on the adjoining common, we monitor adder populations through regular surveys, recording basking sites, sightings, and behaviour through the seasons.
Adders are shy, sun-loving, and wholly undeserving of their fearsome reputation. A glimpse of one coiled in morning light on a south-facing bank is a privilege and a sign that the habitat mosaic we tend is doing its job. Our monitoring helps build the evidence base that underpins their protection.
🦡Hazel dormouse Priority species · monitored annually
🐍Adder Declining · basking sites recorded
🦇Bats Multiple species · roosts protected
🐦Nightjar Summer visitor · habitat maintained
🐦⬛Cuckoo Red list · heard and recorded each spring
🦋Moths & pollinators Rich diversity · light-trap surveys
Creating a home for nature
Conservation is not a single action; it is a hundred small decisions made consistently over years. At Coed y Werin, that means managing woodland structure for light and layering; maintaining open glades for warmth-loving species; protecting veteran trees as irreplaceable habitat; and working hand in hand with ecologists and Natural Resources Wales to ensure the integrity of this habitat and its SSSI is upheld.
It means knowing this land across seasons and decades and bringing that knowledge to bear in every management decision.
Connecting people to nature
Species survive not just through habitat management, but through the hearts and minds of the people who share their world. At Caerphilly Woodlands Trust, we believe that connection is itself an act of conservation.
Through forest bathing sessions, therapeutic walks, bushcraft and green woodworking, and the wonder of fairy door trails for young explorers, we bring people into relationship with this place. When you sit quietly by the waterfall or press your hands to the bark of the Giant Twin western red cedars or hear a cuckoo call across the valley, something shifts. You begin to care and caring is where conservation begins.
Our wellbeing sessions are not a distraction from conservation work; they are its foundation. A wood that people love will always have champions.
“You cannot protect what you do not know. You cannot cherish what you have never touched.”
Caerphilly Woodlands Trust manages Coed y Werin SSSI and adjoining land in South Wales. To learn more about our conservation work, volunteer opportunities, or wellbeing sessions in the wood, follow us on Facebook or get in touch. Diolch — thank you for caring about nature.
Heartfelt thanks and shout out to our volunteer ecologists Dr Alex Wilson, Matt Cooke, Sandra & Pete Wells and Chris Jones
