Trying to stop a riverbank favourite from disappearing (From Warrington Guardian)

Trying to stop a riverbank favourite from disappearing

A NANTWICH-based ecology group has given its backing to Government plans to protect an endangered species in the Cheshire countryside.

Immortalised in Kenneth Graham's Wind in the Willows, the water vole, is one of Britain's best-loved mammals, and unfortunately, the fastest declining.

But it has now been listed as one of five species the Government has recommended adding to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, giving it special protection.

Based at Reaseheath, Cheshire Wildlife Trust has been campaigning for legislative protection for a number of years, arguing that at the current rate of decline the water vole could be extinct from Britain by 2010.

The Trust's Fiona Mahon said: "Unless the water vole receives full protection under the Act we could soon lose it all together from the Cheshire countryside.

"It is hoped that increased legislative protection of the water vole will ensure that consultants and planning authorities will carry out the correct mitigation procedures when engaging in development schemes."

The decline of the water vole population is blamed on the loss of habitat with riverside building, changes in farm practices, and man-made modifications to rivers amongst the main causes.

The introduction of the American mink has also proved to be one of the water vole's most lethal predators. Brought initially to the UK to be farmed for fur, it escaped and was also released by animal rights activists in the 1960s, forming a breeding population that now covers most of the country.

Cheshire Wildlife Trust has implemented some very positive measures to try and combat the water vole decline, training volunteers on identification of the species to increase the number of survey sites.

The Trust's conservation officers are also working on habitat creation and improvement schemes on its nature reserves such as stock fencing and ditch management to improve conditions for the creatures.

To find out more about becoming a volunteer, call the Trust on 610180.