Extra Protection for "Ratty"

 The water vole will receive extra legal protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as amended (WCA), from 06 April 2008. The new legislation will make it an offence intentionally to kill, injure, take from the wild, possess or trade in a water vole, as well as intentionally or recklessly damage, destroy or obstruct access to any structure or place which water voles use for shelter or protection. It is also an offence to disturb water voles while they are using such a place.

Water vole populations in the UK have declined by 90% since the 1990’s, mainly due to habitat loss and degradation and predation by American Mink. This has lead to a patchy distribution nationally, and the extinction of many local populations.

Full legal protection should ensure remaining water vole populations are not compromised during development works. If suitable water vole habitat is found on a development site, a survey should be undertaken to determine whether there are any water voles present on site. If water voles are found to be present, all reasonable efforts should be made to retain and protect the water voles within the site and effort should be made to minimise the effect of the development on water voles.  

Water voles are generally restricted to ditches, watercourses and other wetland habitats and the immediate area of land around them. These features can often be retained within the development site. In which case, all that may be required to protect water voles would be to erect protective fencing around the water vole habitat and ensure that construction activities and storage of materials do not occur within this zone.

If trapping and removal of water voles to make way for development is unavoidable, a licence will now be required from Natural England (or Countryside Council for Wales or Scottish Natural Heritage). Since Natural England (or CCW or SNH) cannot issue licences specifically to allow translocation of water voles to facilitate development, the applicants for the licence will need to demonstrate that the translocation of water voles would bring about a significant nature conservation benefit i.e. there would be an increase in water voles and water vole habitat as a result of the translocation exercise. This is because the legislation does allow Natural England to grant licences to facilitate conservation.

In order to apply for a licence to trap and translocate water voles for conservation purposes the applicant is likely to have to provide Natural England (or CCW or SNH) with some ecological information. This would include a water vole survey in the area subject to the development proposals and the methodology for trapping and translocation of water voles as well as a suitable receptor site plus full justification of the approach i.e. how water voles would benefit. Applicants for survey licences must show a suitable level of knowledge of the subject species and experience in the relevant survey techniques. A consultant ecologist will give advice on when a licence application should be made based on specialist knowledge of the species and any survey information already gathered.

SOURCE: Thomson Ecology

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