630 water vole surveys later…

The highly successful three-year Northwest Lowlands Water Vole Project comes to a close this March. Over 150 volunteers assisted on water vole surveys; either by accompanying the Project Officers on surveys or by adopting their own ‘patch’ to survey independently.

An impressive 630 sites were surveyed for signs of water vole, with 292 (46.3%) showing no signs of water vole presence, 105 (16.7%) showing possible signs of water vole presence and a reassuring 233 (37.0%) showing water vole presence. Only 7 (1.1%) sites showed signs of otter and 39 (6.2%) sites showed signs of American mink.

Due to the success of the Project and the ongoing need for water vole conservation in the Northwest, we have secured funding for survey and habitat works to continue for another year under the guise of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust Water Vole Project.

The project officially begins in April 2011 and will be split into two components; (a) the Fylde survey - the main focus here will be on surveying and training volunteers to survey independently, and (b) targeted habitat management on, and limited surveying of previously unsurveyed areas around, the following six key sites:

(1) Lunt Meadows, Sefton;
(2) Red Moss, Bolton;
(3) Wigan Flashes;
(4) Sankey Valley, St Helens/Warrington;
(5) Leeds-Liverpool Canal; and
(6) Marshside-Martin Mere-Mere Sands Wood, West Lancs.

If you would be interested in getting involved as a Volunteer Water Vole Surveyor you will need to register as a LWT Volunteer - please see our Volunteering section or email: volunteer@lancswt.org.uk or call: 01772 318374.

If you are already registered as a LWT Volunteer then please contact Project Officer Katie Milburn: kmilburn@lancswt.org.uk. If you have previously volunteered on The Northwest Lowlands Water Vole Project you can sit back, relax and await an email with details of future training and surveys.