Trossachs Water Vole Project

Overview

 The Forth Rivers Trust’s involvement with this project ended in March 2021 and it has been handed back to Forestry & Land Scotland. For more information please contact Forestry & Land direct.

The Trossachs Water Vole Project (TWVP) is the result of the first reintroduction of water voles in Scotland. Between 2008 and 2011 over 1000 water voles were reintroduced to selected areas of restored wetland sites across the Cowal and Trossachs Forest District. 

Now in its 12th year, the Trossachs Water Vole Project is continuing to grow, covering over 100km² of the Trossachs and water voles colonies found up to 12km from the original release sites.

American mink monitoring and control has been an essential part of this success, without the eradication of mink from the project area the reintroduction could never have taken place. Maintaining a mink free zone within the project area and to continuing to make every effort to expand our coverage of monitoring equipment to enable the water vole population to expand is one of our top priorities. The TWVP currently operates a network of over 90 mink rafts which are checked every two weeks. Thankfully, we are seeing fewer and fewer signs of American mink in the project area, though we must remain constantly vigilant against this opportunistic and highly adaptable predator. Signs of native mammals like water vole, water shrew, and native predators like otter, pine marten also regularly show up on mink rafts and are recorded and monitored.

Annual surveying of the water vole population is carried out between April and September and is an essential part of the project as it allows us to track the health and distribution of the population. New populations are discovered all the time and it is important to know where they are so that we can protect water vole colonies from changes in land use or works which would disrupt them and better plan our strategic mink monitoring efforts.

With the project stretching over such a vast area, there is no way it would be possible without the help of our volunteers! The TWVP provides at least two training sessions annually to volunteers, one in water vole surveying and one in mink raft surveying. The project also provides training to landowners who agree to site a raft on their land and carry out checks on behalf of the project, which is done on a 1 to 1 basis by the Project Officer.

 

Objectives

  • Facilitate the expansion of the re-introduced water vole population through targeted mink control, identification of new water vole colonies and continued habitat restoration.
  • Continue to monitor the core release areas, collect detailed survey data, and build on this to inform future water vole conservation projects.
  • Continue to increase public engagement and awareness of water vole conservation

Funder

This project is currently funded by Forest & Land Scotland and Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park 

 

 

Partners

The Trossachs Water Vole Project is a partnership project, with the main partners as of 2019 being Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park (LL&TNP), and Forth Rivers Trust (FRT).

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) (Formerly Forest Enterprise Scotland) is the lead agency and landowner for the reintroduction area.  They were responsible for implementing the Water Vole re-introduction and the necessary habitat management works including ongoing restoration of wetland habitats.  They line manage the Project Officer (PO) and contribute the majority of funding for the PO post. 

Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park (LLTNP) provide annual funding in addition to support via extensive volunteer involvement in surveys and via the steering group.  LLTNP have part funded the Project Officer (PO) post in since 2015 and have supplied equipment and funding for the purchase of additional equipment.

Forth Rivers Trust (FRT) joined as project partners in May 2015. We act as the host agency of the Project Officer, seconding the role to Forestry and Land Scotland. FRT has supplied additional mink rafts, traps and other monitoring equipment. We also provide assistance to the project via our knowledge of the Forth catchment and its landowners and riparian land use and ecology. Our involvement with this project ended in March 2021 and we no longer host it. 

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