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New report finds glimmer of hope for endangered water voles

Terry Whittaker/2020VISION

We can still rescue Ratty, say The Wildlife Trusts

A new report from The Wildlife Trusts, The National Water Vole Database Project Report, published today, identifies continued declines in water vole populations set against heartening increases in areas where conservation efforts have been focused. 

The report examines water vole distribution over ten years by analysing the number of 10km grid squares across the country where water voles are present. 

Statistics show overall water vole range declining – a 39% decrease in the number of areas occupied by water voles compared to the 2006 baseline.  

However, when the data is examined more closely encouraging trends emerge. The Wildlife Trusts’ project also looks at the concentration of water voles and has found that whilst the national picture is one of overall decline, some important local pockets of water vole populations have been increasing, with 11 new regional key areas identified in recent years.  

Ali Morse, Water Policy Manager at The Wildlife Trusts, says: 

“The data is giving us a very clear message. The overall national picture is one of decline due to the destruction of natural habitats and predation by the non-native American mink. However, water vole populations will thrive when the right conditions are created. It’s heartening to see that we can still rescue Ratty, if we all plan well and co-ordinate our efforts.  

“Water voles are mini ecosystem engineers, rather like beavers, and they contribute greatly to healthy river ecology. Reversing their historic loss needs to be a key focus of our conservation efforts.” 

Regionally important areas which have been newly identified, or which have expanded since the last analysis, include areas where conservation work to support the return of water voles has been undertaken: 

  • In Hertfordshire, a section of the River Colne has become part of a new Regional Key Area thanks to the work of Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and its partners.  
  • Water voles are also expanding their ranges following reintroductions by the same Wildlife Trust at the rivers Stort and Beane.  
  • The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust’s long-running water vole recovery project has led to an expansion in the areas occupied west of Oxford. 
  • In Yorkshire, a new wetland nature reserve has connected four separate water vole populations around the River Hull, forming a new regionally important area.  
  • In Lincolnshire, an area occupied by water voles between the Wolds and the coast has increased in size following conservation efforts. 
  • Work in East Anglia by a partnership of conservation organisations, water managers and others has seen the formation of two new Regional Key areas of thriving populations. 

Ali Morse continued: 

“Just because voles are present, it doesn’t mean that they are thriving. We still need to ensure that that we provide undisturbed riverbanks, reedbeds and ponds, and remove the non-native American mink that have devastated water vole populations, to allow their numbers to build up once more. 

“Bringing back resilient populations requires a coordinated approach. We need to help populations expand from remaining strongholds, by ensuring that developers, land managers, farmers and conservationists all work in tandem.” 

Water voles look after our riverbanks, burrowing and eating a huge range of plants species. In doing so, they move seeds around, helping to maintain varied plant cover and creating lush and wild bankside vegetation. They are also a key food source for native species like stoats, predatory fish and birds of prey.  

The Wildlife Trusts are calling for: 

  • A roll-out of a project exploring how nature restoration funds from housing developers can be used better, including to enhance water vole habitats.  

  • Key area mapping to be used to inform conservation efforts through the Biodiversity Net Gain requirements which ensure developers enhance nature. 

Read The National Water Vole Database Project Report  

Learn more about our ongoing National Water Vole Database and Mapping Project 

Editor's notes

This report draws on an ongoing project – the Wildlife Trusts’ National Water Vole Database – set up nearly 20 years ago to help target and monitor the impact of conservation efforts. 

Case studies

Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust: In the Colne Valley in Hertfordshire, the Trust has been working with fisheries organisations to help anglers to build on existing management practices that support water voles and other wildlife at their fisheries. This has seen the river Colne forming part of a new Regional Key Area in the county. At an existing regionally important site centred around Hertford, water vole reintroductions by the Trust in the River Stort in 2015 and River Beane in 2022, as well as restoration works on the River Ash, have also seen water voles expand their range in that area.  

Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust: BBOWT’s water vole recovery project (the longest running single species conservation project in the UK) works across three counties to monitor water voles, undertake habitat enhancement and influence local landowners to manage sites sympathetically. Their work has resulted in a continued increase in the known areas of local water vole activity, including west of Oxford, where ongoing American mink control work, and habitat enhancement in partnership with local landowners has led to an expansion in the areas occupied by water voles there. 

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust: Four previously separate local key areas have expanded into each other forming a new regional key area in the headwaters of the river Hull. At the centre of this area is Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Skerne Wetlands nature reserve near the market town of Driffield, a site acquired only 10 years ago and now the focus of the Trust’s water vole conservation efforts in the area. A former working commercial fish farm, habitat restoration has seen the site transformed into a maze of wetland habitats from reedbed and wet grassland, through to ponds and inter-connecting ditches. This habitat connectivity is critical, as connected sites provide better chance of voles finding a refuge from pressures including floods, drought or predators, and where problems do occur, create opportunities for surviving individuals to find a mate and start to rebuild population numbers.   

Partnership work in Lincolnshire: Here, an already-large area occupied by water voles between the Lincolnshire Wolds and the coast has been enlarged, benefitting from previous and ongoing American mink control to allow water voles the opportunity to thrive. This includes work by the Lincolnshire Chalk Streams Project to survey for and remove mink from some of the county’s chalk rivers.  

Waterlife Recovery East – This major partnership project covering East Anglia and beyond has brought together Wildlife Trusts, fishing clubs, landowners, water management organisations and others to control American mink, a voracious predator of water voles. Following extensive work from partners, two new Regional Key Areas for water voles have been identified in the project’s patch, and other existing areas have grown. 

The Wildlife Trusts 

The Wildlife Trusts are making the world wilder and helping to ensure that nature is part of everyone’s lives. We are a grassroots movement of 46 charities with more than 910,000 members and 39,000 volunteers. No matter where you are in Britain, there is a Wildlife Trust inspiring people and saving, protecting and standing up for the natural world. With the support of our members, we care for and restore over 2,600 special places for nature on land and run marine conservation projects and collect vital data on the state of our seas. Every Wildlife Trust works within its local community to inspire people to create a wilder future – from advising thousands of landowners on how to manage their land to benefit wildlife, to connecting hundreds of thousands of school children with nature every year. www.wildlifetrusts.org 

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