The water vole is Britain’s fastest declining mammal. It has lost a staggering 95% of its range since 1900. This is largely due to habitat destruction and the introduction of a voracious predator, the American mink. The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust’s Water Vole Recovery Project, aims to halt the loss of further water voles and ensure that numbers are back to what they were in the 1900s by 2010.
For more information on the project contact: watervole@bbowt.org.uk
What can Steventon do to help
Steventon is an important habitat for water voles and if you are lucky they can be seen in or by the watercourses in the allotments or on the village green. The law has now been changed to make it illegal to damage the habitat of the water voles. If you are a land owner then you will have been sent a guide giving details on how to manage the banks. The Parish Council and SARINC have produced guidelines on how to manage the common the watercourses. Briefly these are:
- Only mow the flat edges above the banks, leaving the banks sides to the water’s edge unstrimmed;
- wherever possible leave a strip of at least a meter wide undisturbed on either side of all the watercourses.
If you see any disturbances that you are concerned about please get in touch with the Parish Council or SARINC.
Photos of water voles taken by ©Terry Longley contact www.seeing.org.uk