Water Vole Project

Working with the added financial aid of English Nature and The Environment Agency, the Herefordshire Biodiversity Partnership, based at the Herefordshire Nature Trust, undertook the mammoth task of finding a small mammal that does not like to be seen. Surveys of brooks and bodies of water were taken, volunteers were trained to find the signs of Water Vole, and Mink Rafts were constructed to minimise the effects of the Water Vole's most abundant predator. The project ran from April 2004 to December 2004, but, unfortunately, during this period no new populations of Water Vole were identified by the project. This prevention of colonisation has been attributed to a general lack of suitable habitat and predation by Mink.