A century after the publication of Kenneth Grahame’s children’s classic The Wind in the Willows, and six years after a change in the law was first recommended, ‘Ratty’ is finally to receive full protection from the law.
Sussex Wildlife Trust (SWT) welcomes new proposals announced today by Defra following the recommendation for full protection of water voles made as part of the Quinquennial Review of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in 2002. However, it has taken six years for the recommendation to reach the Minister for the Environment and to be accepted by Defra.
Immortalised in The Wind in the Willows, ‘Ratty’ lived by a river and passed his days rowing up and downstream. Despite his name ‘Ratty’ was in fact, a water vole – a member of the rodent family but definitely not a rat.
Unfortunately, for many people, the confusion starts here and water voles are often mistaken for rats. They can both be found near wet areas and often burrow in the same places in the banks of streams and watercourses.
It will now be against the law to intentionally kill a water vole or to intentionally, or recklessly, damage or disturb the places they use for shelter or protection.
Threatened by habitat loss and predation by American mink, the water vole is the UK’s fastest declining native mammal. SWT has been working hard to ensure that water voles survive in Sussex, by improving wetland habitats and supporting the work of the Sussex Otters and Rivers Partnership (SORP).
Fran Southgate, SORP Officer says, “This is welcomed news from Defra. When we started work in 2000, it was predicted that water voles would be extinct in Sussex by 2010. Thanks to conservation work their populations are now stabilizing and now with full legal protection there is hope for their future.”
SWT is currently running an appeal to help improve wetland habitats in Sussex for species such as the water vole and otter. If you would like to make a donation or find out more please visit the Trust website www.sussexwt.org.uk or call us on 01273 492630 for our appeal leaflet.
Ends
Sussex Otters and Rivers Partnership (SORP) is a unique partnership between the Environment Agency, Sussex Wildlife Trust, South East Water and Southern Water Services. To find out more please see the website www.sussexotters.org
