Northumberland Water Vole Recovery

Water vole recovery 

Water voles, once common across the UK, have disappeared from over 95% of their former range and are at risk of being lost completely from the lowlands of the North East. The only remaining viable populations in Northumberland are in the North Pennines and a recently reintroduced population in Kielder. This drastic decline is the compounding effect of habitat loss and predation from introduced American mink. 

North east water vole recovery strategy 

Northumberland Wildlife Trust has received funding from the Environment Agency through the Local Water Environment Grant to create a water vole recovery strategy across Tees Valley, County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland. The current strategy was published in 2011 and is now out of date. Since then, there have been successful water vole reintroductions into Kielder Water & Forest Park, ‘Restoring Ratty’ (2016-2022) - as well as mink control, ‘Naturally Native’ (2021-2023) which carried out mink control and water vole surveys in the Tyne, Wear and Tees catchments. Both of these projects were funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund. Outside of conservation projects water vole populations are still declining. 

Nationally there has been a shift to focus on mink eradication, not control. The Waterlife Recovery Trust in East Anglia carried out a four-year trial over 6000km² of land, using 441 ‘smart’ traps to catch mink and proved eradication was possible with coordinated effort.  

This project will use national and local learnings to bring stakeholders together to create a fit-for-purpose water vole strategy that looks to remove mink from the landscape, allow water voles to recover on their own and, if necessary, reintroduce water voles. 

Northumberland water vole action plan 

Northumberland Wildlife Trust is also working on an action plan to put the strategy into place for Northumberland. The strategy will be used to create an in-depth action plan for Northumberland. This will include filling in data gaps through water vole occupancy and habitat surveys. We are planning work with stakeholders including habitat works, mink trapping, water vole captive breeding and reintroductions.  The action plan is supported by funding from Garfield Weston Foundation administered through the National Trust's Wilder Wallington project. Additional funding is being provided through Wonderful Water voles – Big Give.

Restoring Ratty - bringing the water vole back to Kielder 

Thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the support of partners in Forestry England and Tyne Rivers Trust, NWT was able to restore water vole populations into the Kielder catchment of the North Tyne. We are currently monitoring this population and allowing it to spread throughout the catchment and surrounding areas. 

What have we done? 

Between 2016 and 2022, the project reintroduced around 2,200 water voles into Kielder Water and Forest Park to establish a source population of water voles which could then expand into the wider mink monitoring area. To achieve this, water voles were collected from donor sites in the North Pennines, Yorkshire and Trossachs where suitable water vole populations currently exist. Through captive breeding, numbers were increased to ensure sufficient voles were available for reintroduction. Donor animals were collected during autumn 2016, with breeding taking place from spring 2017 and then the first release took place in June 2017. Since then, there have been a further eleven releases, with the most recent and final release in August 2022. To date we have released 2,039 water voles into Kielder Water and Forest Park. 

Throughout the project, NWT volunteers and other partners have been undertaking the task of monitoring for the presence of mink in and around the Kielder Water Forest Park. This indicated that the area was virtually mink free and the environment was suitable for the reintroduction of water voles. We cannot however rest on our laurels as mink are always on the fringes of the area and could surface at any time, and as such, monitoring has continued since the project ended.

Naturally Native  

With thanks to players of the National Lottery and funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Durham Wildlife Trust, Northumberland Wildlife Trust and Tees Valley Wildlife Trust worked together between 2021 and 2023 to prevent the loss of water voles across areas of the North East and deliver habitat improvement to facilitate growth and expansion of existing water vole populations; systematic and priority led control of American mink, and a programme of education and engagement with landowners, local communities and other stakeholders.  

Funders