Escape to the County
Monday 21st June 2010
Water voles re-locate from major port development to Essex countryside
Three hundred endangered water voles are to be re-homed today (Monday 21 June) from the UK’s new deep sea container port at Thurrock to the peaceful riverbanks of the winding River Colne, in Essex.
The 50 mile journey - from DP World’s London Gateway site to riverside release areas near Colchester - is part of one of the largest scale wildlife translocations in the UK.
DP World is managing one of the UK’s largest environmental management projects at London Gateway to prepare the site for construction of a new deep sea container port and one of Europe’s largest logistics parks. The project includes clearing the 1,500acre site of animals and mammals including snakes, lizards, water voles, newts and many others. Over 50,000 animals have been relocated to date.
Trapping water voles started in March 2010 under licence from Natural England, with voles weighed, sexed, and placed in holding cages with bedding and food before being transported to temporary homes, including the Wildwood wildlife sanctuary in Kent.
Wildwood has a large water vole quarantine facility which allows them to health screen the voles and keep them safe prior to release. The voles were trapped outside the main breeding season, to avoid capturing mothers and leaving young voles abandoned in their nest chambers.
Essex has lost 90% of its water voles, popularised by ‘Ratty’ in Wind in the Willows and once a familiar sight and sound as they dived into the water from their bankside holes. But with the help of action by conservation groups, this translocation will help to strengthen local populations.
The vole translocation programme is the brainchild of Darren Tansley, Essex Wildlife Trust’s Water for Wildlife officer who will oversee their release, providing advice to DP World, developers of the London Gateway and one of the world’s largest marine terminal operators.
One of the main vole release sites is Fordham Hall Estate, a 500-acre Woodland Trust woodland creation site ideally situated on the River Colne where enhancement work to improve the river habitat has already been undertaken in conjunction with the Environment Agency.
One in ten of the water voles will be radio-tracked by Essex Wildlife Trust and Thomson Ecology to establish in which locations they choose to settle, providing important information for future translocations around the UK.
During the summer and autumn, the progress of the colony will be monitored by a BSc student in conjunction with Essex Wildlife Trust’s Water for Wildlife Project. This will provide useful data about the voles’ response to their new habitat and how quickly they breed and expand their range. The area will be regularly surveyed over five years to establish how successful the project has been.
In 2009 Essex Wildlife Trust, in partnership with Essex & Suffolk Water, translocated a threatened colony of water voles on Abberton Reservoir into wildlife habitat specially created in a safe part of the site. Monitoring of this colony has shown not only successful breeding but survival of the harshest winter in decades. This small-scale project was the ideal test for the techniques used during this translocation.
Darren Tansley, said: “Water vole numbers are now improving across the Essex water vole recovery area and I am confident the River Colne translocation will be as successful as our other work to restore this species to its former range.
“Many organisations have been involved and it is great we have found such good habitat at Fordham Hall, under the management of the Woodland Trust, to translocate a significant proportion of the Thames Gateway water voles. DP World has been exemplary in its environmental management of relocation of water voles and we look forward to working with them in the future.
“I have spent the last three years working with landowners along this catchment to make it safe for voles to return and their support has been fundamental to realising this project.”
For Geoff Sinclair, site manager at Fordham Hall Estate, the water vole re-introduction is further proof of new woodland’s value as wildlife habitat, following re-colonisation of otters on the same stretch of water.
“Thirty years ago voles would have been common on this stretch of the river and it will be marvellous to see them back,” he said. Fordham, subject of a bequest to the Trust, has seen former farmland transformed into a publicly accessible mosaic of native trees, wild flower meadows and access paths, with re-profiling of the river bank and creation of small islands."
Marcus Pearson, DP World, environmental manager, said: “This is what ecological conservation is all about, we have worked in partnership with Essex Wildlife Trust to identify and prepare a fantastic site for the translocation of over 300 water voles to one of the most picturesque and diverse river systems in Essex. Today sees the culmination of six months planning and fieldwork to get the timing right for the release, and also 30 days of trapping animals from the London Gateway’s site, The animals have been housed at Wildwood in Kent and also a purpose made animal sanctuary on site.”
Story by RSWT