Water vole mitigation and habitat creation

Thames Gateway, Essex

May 2009

Case Studies Thames Gateway 4 Water voles were found to be present on a large site which was due to be developed as part of the new Thames Gateway container port. The brief was to move water voles from the development site to save them from being killed or injured and to satisfy the regulations on a highly protected species.

To aid translocation we:

Provided water vole traps.
Installed approximately 20km of water vole fencing.
Carried out a destructive search and vegetation clearance.

We created new suitable habitat for the translocated water voles by:

Re-profiling 750m of existing ditch to create suitable banks for water voles.
Installing an underground drainage channel to connect the re-profiled ditch to an existing water way.
Lifting vegetation and replacing it in the new ditch.
Building water vole release pens which were used by the ecologists to release the trapped water voles onto the receptor site.

Evidence now shows that water vole populations on site are thriving.

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