The Nottinghamshire Water Vole Recovery Project – one of over 60 projects aimed at recovering a wide range of our scarcest animals and plants thanks to £14.5 million of funding via Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme – has reached an exciting stage, with the release of over 100 captive bred water voles at our Idle Valley Nature Reserve near Retford.
Thanks to the support of Natural England and Severn Trent, we are investing over half a million pounds to restore and create vital wetland habitat; boost water vole numbers and to control non-native American mink across 900 hectares of wetland habitat and more than 50km of rivers.
Using lessons from successes in other projects, we are determined to restore water vole populations in at least three catchments across the county. Last month, the water voles, specially bred by the Derek Gow Consultancy, were introduced into a 58-hectare enclosure – originally created to enable the reintroduction of beavers in 2021. Our beaver enclosure provides a unique setting to establish an ‘Ark’ site for water voles to enable which should help us bring these important and valuable mammals back. In time, we hope they will disperse across the whole 375 hectares of the reserve and into the wider Idle Valley.
In preparation for the release, we have been delivering targeted mink control and habitat creation within the Idle catchment. Our team have also been controlling mink on water courses in Sherwood Forest Erewash catchments. They’ve also been improving habitats to help rebuild dwindling and fragmented water vole populations at sites including our Attenborough Nature Reserve which sits at the confluence of the River Erewash and River Trent.
It is widely acknowledged that the water vole is the UK’s fastest declining mammal. Surveys for the species in Nottinghamshire last year found them to be almost entirely absent from sites where they were recorded historically. This local evidence, plus continued pressure on water vole populations across the UK and their recent extinction in some counties, underlines that urgent and concerted action is needed to prevent this charismatic and important mammal being lost from Nottinghamshire.
The parlous state of the species in our county and elsewhere makes the support of Natural England’s Species Recovery Capital Grant Scheme and from Severn Trent is hugely welcome. It has hugely important. They have provided the resources to match our long-held ambitions and other partners have provided much needed advice and expertise. After months of hard work reducing mink numbers and improving habitat to support water voles and other wetland species – it is so exciting to have been able to carry out the county’s first ever mass release of water voles.
The Trust also expects the project to provide the foundations for a county-wide recovery programme in the years ahead and is currently seeking funds to support the project for next year.
For further information visit www.nottinghamshirewildlife.org/water-vole-recovery-project.
Image: Water vole, Tom Marshall