Improving habitats is helping to get 'Ratty' back to the riverbank

FUND SUPPORTS TRUST'S WORK TO IMPROVE RIVER CATCHMENT AND BRING VOLE BACK TO BOOST OTHER WILDLIFE

- By TELEGRAPH REPORTER

A TRANSFORMATIVE programme of habitat restoration across the River Dove catchment is helping to bring back one of the UK's most threatened mammals, thanks to £40,000 in support from the Water Environment Improvement Fund (WEIF).

The fund, administered on behalf of Defra by the Environment Agency, to improve the water environment, will support Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Water Vole Recovery Project to deliver targeted improvements across more than 500km of the Dove catchment, restoring natural river processes, enhancing vital wetland habitats, and improving water quality.

Water voles are now the fastest declining mammal in the UK, having disappeared from 96 per cent of their area of cover in England.