Destructive displacement
There has been a lot of activity recently by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust to ensure some water voles are safely dispersed away from an area where significant engineering work is about to take place. They are a protected species, and work cannot commence within 50m of their habitat.
Today Stroud Valleys Project completed the job under ecological supervision, and ensured that the previously occupied burrows and surrounding vegetation were removed so new voles are not tempted to move in during the works.
The burrow entrances are about the size of a tennis ball, just above the water line. We would slice vertically into the bank to follow the trail backwards. Once it is completed removed, the trench can then be filled back in with earth and packed down.
It is also important to remove the surrounding bank vegetation.
This has two purposes. Firstly, water voles like dense vegetation for food and cover, so they are less likely to return to this area during the works. Secondly, if the area is clear, it is easier to continue visual inspections during the works to make sure that no new voles have nested.
We are at the beginning of the growing season, so we removed as much of the root as possible to stop them regrowing so much.
The weather was much better than anticipated and it only lightly rained for a few minutes. By lunchtime, we had pretty much completed the section, and just had some infill pieces to do afterwards.
