Water Vole Project Update – Safely Volunteering in 2021

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have not been able to host any volunteering events on the Trossachs Water Vole Project. 2020 saw a hugely scaled back water vole survey season on previous years and mink monitoring and trapping was concentrated on hotspot areas (where mink are most often detected and trapped).

In early 2021, the project partners plan to welcome volunteers back to the project with some new adjustments and safety procedures to keep volunteers safe from Coronavirus whilst supporting vital project work. A new mink raft monitoring route has been created to cover all of the central ‘hotspot’ rafts that volunteers will be able to access from their own vehicles. New working procedures and roles will see tasks split between the volunteers to prevent sharing equipment and PPE. Finally, a new refresher training video has been generated to help volunteers get back into the swing of things.

A huge thank you to all of our volunteers from the Project Officer and partners for your patience and understanding this year. We have missed you and we can’t wait to see volunteers back out in the wild!