One of the UK’s longest running wildlife projects, the Water Vole Recovery Project run by Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, is a real success story with new populations of this rare animal found along several of Oxfordshire’s rivers in recent years.

But, like the animal itself, this is a rare good news story because the national trend shows a significant decline in water voles across the UK. In the five years to 2008, water voles were recorded in 901 10km squares across the UK, but the data set for 2011 shows they were recorded in just 683. Although this is just a snapshot because fewer surveys were carried out due to lack of funds, there is a grave danger that water vole numbers are dropping, and this decline is linked to the lack of proactive conservation work.

Many local water vole conservation projects were set up 15 years ago when the water vole was listed as a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species due to the rapid and serious decline in populations. Hundreds of volunteers were recruited and trained to survey for signs of water voles along rivers and brooks; this data is collated by the National Water Vole Mapping Project.

Julia Lofthouse, the BBOWT Water Vole Recovery Project officer, has a team of over 50 trained and dedicated volunteer surveyors; she also works with landowners to encourage the restoration of water vole habitats in rivers and streams, and to monitor and control American mink, the water vole's main predator. She said: “Our partnership project, with support from the Environment Agency, the Canal & River Trust and Thames Water, started in 1998 with the aims of identifying Local Key Areas for water voles throughout the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. Over the last few years we’ve seen a significant increase in the numbers of water voles as they’ve expanded their territories in Oxfordshire. “People living in Witney now have a very good chance of spotting a water vole because they are spreading out along the River Windrush that flows through the town.”

Other urban environments where people may see water voles are the River Ock through Abingdon, the Ginge Brook at Steventon, and even the Oxford Canal. This success story is replicated in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, as water voles have increased their range across the three counties by over 15,000 hectares since 2009.

This water vole success story can be maintained, but only if sufficient funding helps to support the project, as Matt Jackson, BBOWT's Head of Conservation Policy and Strategy explained. "The funding for the BBOWT Water Vole Recovery Project runs out next year so Oxfordshire's water voles are by no means safe, and all our good work over the last 15 years could easily be undone.

“Nationally, the funding sources are drying up and this is having a knock-on effect on water vole conservation projects across the UK, so there is much less surveying.

“The aim of the BBOWT Water Vole Recovery Project was to arrest the decline of water voles in the three counties, and to work to stabilise and increase populations.

“We are bucking the national trend with a success story in Oxfordshire, but we cannot be complacent,” he warned.