Wendy Tobitt of BBOWT reports on how numbers of the rodents are looking more healthy thanks to the work of volunteers

Fifteen years ago BBOWT set up the Water Vole Recovery Project, the first of its kind in the UK, in response to the awful results of a national water vole survey carried out in 1997. This showed that water voles had vanished from 95 per cent of their habitats throughout the country — a serious threat to the survival of this much-loved animal.

Thanks to careful and dedicated conservation work in Oxfordshire over the last few years, water voles are now a much more common sight along streams and rivers such as Ginge Brook, the River Ock and the River Windrush. This work was carried out by the Wildlife Trust with support from the Environment Agency, the Canal & River Trust and Thames Water. But the external funding is starting to dry up, and once again the future of the water voles in Oxfordshire is in jeopardy.

Julia Lofthouse, BBOWT’s Water Vole Recovery Project officer, leads the Wildlife Trust’s fundraising appeal to help protect water voles and their habitats for the future.

“Although we’ve seen an increase in water vole populations, in some areas by almost 60 per cent, they can disappear as readily as they arrive,” she says. “My worry is that if we turn our backs, even momentarily, all our good work could be undone, and signal the end for some of our local water vole colonies.”

The decline of water vole populations over the last half of the 20th century coincided with changes in the ways farmland and rivers were used. Some streams and rivers became part of industrial developments or golf courses, and banks were substantially engineered with walls that water voles cannot burrow into. Canal banks were reinforced as waterways were developed for tourism. American mink, which were farmed for their fur until the early 1990s, escaped into water courses and have now become the main predator of water voles, capable of annihilating colonies within a few weeks.

For the last few years BBOWT’s Water Vole Recovery Project has worked successfully with landowners to encourage the sensitive restoration of habitats alongside rivers, streams and ditches, and the monitoring and control of the mink.

Julia Lofthouse leads a team of 50 trained volunteers who survey the water courses in the three counties looking for signs of water voles and logging information on to a central database. Water vole feeding lawns and latrines on banks beside streams are much easier to see than the animals themselves. The feeding lawn is a small pile of grass and plants, each with a neat 45 degree cut at the end where the water vole has nibbled off the juiciest pieces to eat, leaving behind the tough bits! Water vole latrines are little piles of droppings, each about the size of a Tic-tac sweet.

Data gathered from the surveys during the last few years shows how small colonies of water voles have, over time, merged to create larger populations — only achievable with the help of local landowners restoring waterside habitats.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of working with water voles is seeing the results of our work quickly,” says Julia. “In the right conditions water voles are prolific breeders and populations spread quite rapidly.”

Oxfordshire’s chalk streams including Letcombe Brook near Wantage, along with other streams that lead to the River Ock, are favourite water vole habitats, with clear water, tasty plants growing in the gravel beds and banks for the water voles’ long burrows.

Tributaries of the upper Thames including Clanfield Brook, the Glyme and Windrush rivers support several colonies, and water voles may be seen in Witney. In Oxford, water voles have returned to Bayswater Brook and Oxford Canal, where a few sections of the banks have been restored for wildlife.

As part of the BBOWT Water Vole Appeal, the trust has created a gallery of photos and videos, some taken on BBOWT reserves, showing water voles eating, swimming and carrying their young between burrows.