Info for Landowners

Water vole-friendly waterways - how you can help!

Mink

Historically, Cumbria's wildlife has suffered from the presence of particularly high numbers of mink. This non-native predator was first introduced to Britain to be farmed for its fur in 1929. Escapes and deliberate releases meant that the mink soon established itself as a highly successful predator in the wild, taking mammals, birds and fish. Water voles are especially vulnerable as mink are superb swimmers, and a female can fit down a water vole burrow, leaving no means of escape.

The Cumbria Water Vole Project has been running a mink reporting scheme and monitoring project using floating rafts newly developed by the Game Conservancy Trust. These rafts are tethered at the water's edge, and support a clay tracking plate under a wooden tunnel. The mink, being highly inquisitive, cross the raft leaving their tracks in the clay. The tracking plate can be checked once a week, giving us a good picture of where mink are active and enabling a targetted trapping effort. If mink are found, the clay can be replaced with a cage trap which fits into the tunnel for humane capture.

If you would like more information or have seen a mink in your area, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.

Habitat

Cumbria is famous for its watery habitats, and yet the water vole has suffered a massive decline in the area. Even simple changes to the management of waterside habitats can make a huge difference for water voles, and other wildlife will benefit too! A couple of examples are detailed below - contact us if you want more information or order a free Farming and Wildlife Pack by e-mailing or telephoning us.

Backwaters, Ponds and Ditches

Accumulated silt and vegetation must be removed periodically, but by following some simple guidelines, this will benefit, rather than harm wildlife.

• Undertake cutting in late summer before flood events but to allow some vegetation re-growth before winter. Work upstream to allow plants to recolonise further down.
• Clear only certain sections at a time - ideally 30-50m in length.
• De-silt from a central channel only without scraping the banks - consider creating features such as shelves, bays and ponds.
• Leave a fringe of uncut vegetation at the water's edge.
• Leave cut channel vegetation on the bank temporarily to allow aquatic invertebrates to crawl into the water

Margins and buffer strips

Protect waterways from farm operations and erosion and provide excellent wildlife habitat. Grant funding is available - small buffers around hedges and ditches will be required from July 2005 under the new Entry Level Stewardship schemes.

• Stock may be excluded using permanent fences, including the fencing of meanders, or using electric fencing to enable temporary exclusion at critical times.
  
  
• Buffers in arable fields may be established by natural regeneration or by sowing. If there is a visual or perceived weed problem, margins should ideally be sown.
• Management can be by regular topping/ cutting in the first year for newly established buffers, and by rotational cutting or by allowing selective stock access for established buffers.

Grant Information Both annual and capital payments may be awarded by DEFRA for managing, protecting, enhancing and creating wetlands, river corridors, arable margins, fenced-off riverbank and buffer strips. The new Environmental Stewardship Schemes have now taken over from Countryside Stewardship and Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) payments. For more information contact us or check out the DEFRA or Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group websites. The Environment Agency can help with the design and creation of larger habitat enhancement schemes. They must also be contacted before any work is undertaken on river banks/ bed or adjacent to a main river watercourse. For your local office see www.environment-agency.gov.uk

Farming and Wildlife Pack Produced by the Environment Agency, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group and Wildlife Conservation Research Unit and contain a wealth of information based on existing practical projects. Phone or e-mail us for a free copy.

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Water Vole Project Officer: Jenny Holden
Cumbria Wildlife Trust & Eden Rivers Trust, Plumgarths,
Crook Road, Kendal LA8 8LX
T: 01539 816300  F: 01539 816301
E: