Member Article

A vole new world

Restoring Ratty,’ an ambitious five year partnership project aimed at the reintroduction of water voles to the Kielder area of Northumberland is now set to start, and it has all been made possible by National Lottery players and a grant of £421,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

The project will establish a sustainable population of water voles within Kielder Water and Forest Park (KWFP), on the upper catchment tributaries of the Kielder Burn and North Tyne above Kielder Reservoir; to achieve this, a team of volunteers and conservationists will carry out a programme of captive breeding and reintroduction of voles to areas with suitable wetland habitat where there is an absence of its main enemy, American mink.

The water vole, brought to life as ‘Ratty’ in Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows, has been declining in the UK for many years due to predation from afore mentioned American mink, which have contributed to the loss of about 94% of their former range in Great Britain, and habitat losses. It is now largely absent from the region although strong populations remain in the north Pennines.

The project will start later this month with the recruitment of a project officer and surveys in the North Pennines from which water voles may be taken to establish a captive breeding population to begin reintroduction…

Engagement with local communities, volunteers, visitors and wider landowners will be key to establishing a long term future for the water voles and there will be many opportunities for people of all ages to get involved in the project.

By the end of the five year project, the team hopes there will be well established water vole colonies at Kielder with the additional hope that this much loved mammal will continue to live in this area in the future.

The forthcoming work builds on three years of detailed planning and year-round mink surveys, made possible by thousands of hours of trained volunteer effort, all of which have indicated that Kielder is now a great place for water voles.

Graham Holyoak, Project Manager for Tyne Rivers Trust which successfully led the first phase of the project to establish a predator free environment for water voles says: “Volunteers gathered over 1000 records with no sighting of mink, which is the water vole’s main predator, so we are confident that the habitat is now ready for the re-introduction of water voles to begin.”

Project partners, the Forestry Commission, Tyne Rivers Trust and Northumberland Wildlife Trust, are committed to working together over the next five years to make this project a success, supporting the soon to be appointed project officer based at Kielder Castle.

Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Development Manager Nick Mason said: “We are delighted that the hard work of everybody who worked to create this wonderful Project has paid off and ‘Ratty’ can now, thanks to support from National Lottery players, make a triumphant return to our riverbanks where it rightfully belongs.”

Tom Dearnley, the Forestry Commission’s Ecologist for Kielder Forest said: ‘Thanks to this vital grant, a skilled team of wildlife experts and Kielder’s Foresters creating ideal habitats for water voles, we can look forward to this cherished species becoming a common sight in rivers and stream throughout Kielder Water and Forest Park once again.’

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Bishop .