Issue 4 Winter 2000/1

• Species surveys from 2000
• Worcestershire Biodiversity Partnership meeting
• Road Verge Nature Reserves
• Grant news
• In brief

Species surveys 2000 - some alarming results

Water Voles - Last summer the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust undertook surveys on two Worcestershire BAP species – White-clawed Crayfish and Water Voles. For both of these, the results reveal a depressing picture.

Nationally the picture for Water Voles is not good – between 1989 and 1998 the UK population is estimated to have fallen a staggering 87% - from more than six million to around 780,000. This decline is reflected locally – the survey last summer found Water Voles in only a handful of the 80 or so sites where they have historically occurred.

At least in Worcestershire we do now know where the remaining Water Vole populations are. Andy Graham from the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust has been working with British Waterways and Bromsgrove District Council to ensure that these areas are managed appropriately for Water Voles, by using ‘soft’ engineering on banks to combat erosion, and encouraging plant growth on watercourse margins.

Back in September 1999 conservationists were predicting that Water Voles could be extinct in Britain by 2003. A year later and the news is still bad. We MUST make sure that we don’t leave it too late to save this lovely animal of our waterways

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