Eco-Firm Helps Save Homes of Water Voles From Dredging Machines

They are a much-loved icon of the pastoral English countryside, but now the water vole – immortalised as Ratty in Kenneth Grahame’s classic The Wind in the Willows – could get high-tech help to protect their riverbank homes from the demands of modern life.

A Westcountry-based eco-engineering company has devised a new system that balances the needs of industry with the need to protect the homes of water voles.

Soon to be a protected species, the small creatures have been safeguarded by Government legislation preventing them from being harmed or their homes disturbed.

Now, Somerset-based eco-engineering company Willowbank has stepped in with a new type of technology to help safeguard the homes of voles and ensure their habitats can survive alongside the 21st- century needs of the agricultural industry.

Changing water levels pose a threat to the mammals and Willowbank, based in Stoke St Gregory, has come up with a method of allowing dredging work on Somerset’s waterways to continue without damaging voles and their homes.

The voles receive protected species from April 6, when it will be illegal to kill, injure or disturb a water vole or damage its burrow under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Willowbank partner James Hector said: “This is a big breakthrough in water engineering. Our system will ensure affordable efficient dredging plus the best sustainable environment for voles.”

(c) 2008 Western Morning News, The Plymouth (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.