 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
12 October
2007…………...For Immediate Release New
Homes for Water Voles! Water voles are the
UK’s most endangered mammal and, like elsewhere in the country, water
vole numbers in Warwickshire have plummeted.
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust is working in partnership with British
Waterways and BTCV on a new project which will improve 3.5 km of the
Birmingham and Fazeley canal for water voles.
The project has received £23,900 funding from SITA Trust, through
the Landfill Communities Fund. SITA
Trust provides funding to improve biodiversity and the environment around
landfill sites throughout England. SITA
Trust receives its funding from the waste management company, SITA UK.
This is enabling the Wildlife Trust to purchase and install
innovative ‘water vole corridor units’ which are specially designed to
attach to the steel pilings along canals and create instant water vole
habitat! Installation starts
on Monday 15th October 2007.
Water voles were once
common along canals and rivers but predation by American mink and loss of
habitat has pushed them close to extinction.
Louise Sutherland, Wetland Project Officer for Warwickshire
Wildlife Trust, explains, “We hope
this project will enable water voles to colonise the canal and spread from
Draycote in Staffordshire to Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire.
Currently the canal’s hard engineering and steel pilings
represent a barrier to water vole movement, but the project should enable
the water voles to spread into the newly created habitats along the canal.
This will allow their populations to increase and help to protect the
voles from American mink.” For more information on
water voles and to take part in new water vole survey courses, starting in
April 2008, please contact the Trust on 024 7630 2912.
No experience is needed as full training will be provided. ENDS
Press
Contact:
Louise Sutherland
Wetland Project Officer 024
7630 8995 |
|
 |
|
