PRESS RELEASE

18th June 2008

Help save our water voles from extinction!

Despite recent government legislation to protect water voles from extinction in the UK, Cheshire Wildlife Trust still needs the help of local residents to help the water vole stay safe on local soil.

The animal was recently given full protection under the law* and now the Trust is asking local people to help fund a new project to save the creature from extinction.

A total of £12,000 must be raised to carry out essential water vole habitat work to reverse the dramatic decline in populations experienced in the water vole population recent years.

Water voles are the fastest declining mammal in the UK and numbers have plummeted from more than seven million in 1990 to fewer than one million today and Cheshire has experienced a similar overall decline.

Cheshire Wildlife Trust recently secured a grant for a Water Vole Project Officer who monitors water vole populations, records the presence of their biggest predator, the American mink and provides support and equipment to volunteers.

Jacki Hulse, the Trusts’ head of estates and land management says: “The work of the Water Vole Project Officer will be invaluable in establishing the precise numbers in Cheshire but to help the small populations expand, disperse and re-colonise the county’s wetlands we must urgently work on a programme of habitat restoration, recreation and management. For this we need the financial help of local residents.”

The water vole also has the misfortune of being mistaken for the brown rat and even in the literary classic ‘The Wind in the Willow’s the character ‘Ratty’ was actually a water vole. The visual likeness to the unpopular rodent has meant water voles have often been victims of poisoning.

To support the Trust’s essential habitat work, which aims to ensure that water voles become a common sight in Cheshire once again, donations can be made by sending a cheque payable to Cheshire Wildlife Trust to Cheshire Wildlife Trust Water Vole Campaign, Bickley Hall Farm, Bickley, near Malpas, Cheshire, SY14 8EF.

To find out more about the work of the Trust or to discuss membership please call 01948 820728.

Ends

*From 6 April 2008 the water vole received and increased level of protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (Variation of Schedule 5) (England Order 2008). This increased protection added prohibitions against intentional killing, taking or injury, possession and sale.