The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) is delighted that the government has today given full legal protection to Britain’s most endangered mammal, the water vole.

Speaking this morning at WWT London Wetland Centre in Barnes, the Minister for Biodiversity, Joan Ruddock, announced that water voles will be protected against being killed, injured or taken from the wild. Police will also have the power to prosecute where water voles have been deliberately persecuted.

WWT has thriving water vole populations at six of its wetland centres, including WWT London Wetland Centre where they were successfully introduced in 2001. The centre is now home to 3-400 individuals.

Debbie Pain, Director of Conservation at WWT, welcomed the new measures, “Water voles have suffered the most dramatic decline of any British mammal. Over the last century numbers have plummeted to a tiny fraction and they are completely gone from many areas where they were once common. So we’re delighted with today’s news that they will get proper protection. It makes the law much clearer for people who manage land and it gives the police the power to deal with people who deliberately kill water voles.”

WWT has been actively working to maintain and then expand water vole populations on the land it manages wherever suitable. Water voles are present at WWT Llanelli, Martin Mere, Slimbridge and Welney Wetland Centres. WWT has also reintroduced them to WWT Arundel Wetland Centre and, most notably, successfully introduced them to the London Wetland Centre in 2001 with the Environment Agency.

Immortalised as Ratty in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, the water vole was common and widespread at the start of the 20th century. Since then they have suffered a massive decline in numbers and distribution. There is only one water vole alive today for every twenty that were alive then.

The loss of wetland habitat has been major factor in the water voles’ decline. The spread of American mink, a recent introduction to the UK, has compounded their decline. American mink have become the water voles’ main predator. Water voles are now so few and spread out that their future is at risk from individual incidents, such as accidental poisoning. Today’s announcement makes the law much clearer for everyone whose business could affect water voles.

Four Avocets have returned to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust’s reserve at Martin Mere in the past few days, at least three weeks earlier that usual, making this the earliest record in Lancashire of a returning group of summer wading birds for breeding.

This is also yet another clear indicator that climate change is affecting the migration patterns of birds.

WWT Martin Mere Reserve Manager, Chris Tomlinson, said: “It is great to see the Avocets back this early. Working at Martin Mere we do notice the changes in migration patterns and it is more common now for birds to arrive earlier as we see changes in weather conditions. We are very hopeful of a successful breeding season for the summer wading birds and we will potentially have another record year for Avocet breeding”.

Avocets can usually be expected to return to WWT Martin Mere from the end of February, early March but these birds have travelled from the South almost a month earlier than usual. Avocets first bred at Martin Mere in 2001 once the new land had been completed on the reserve. In the first year only three pairs bred but numbers have gradually increased to seventeen pairs in 2007 which was a record for the Centre. Work will soon begin on the Mere to create more nesting habitat for the Avocets.

Avocets also breed every year at WWT Welney in Norfolk and can be seen on the reserve between March and August. The first breeding pair was recorded in 1996 and numbers rose steadily with 25 pairs incubating in 2007. A pair of Avocets have also visited and successfully bred at WWT Washington in Tyne and Wear for the past two years, making it the most northerly record of breeding Avocets in the UK.

Last year WWT launched a waders campaign because populations of breeding waders have fallen dramatically in recent years as wet grasslands are lost to agricultural drainage. British wading birds need wet grassland to live and breed, yet it is one of the fastest disappearing habitats in the UK. A high proportion of breeding waders are therefore concentrated in just a few sites, so it is vital that these areas are protected and maintained.