Salisbury River Park Project: Mammal traps set on River Avon

As part of the Salisbury River Park Project, the traps have been set in place to catch any water voles that may have set up home along that stretch of water.

These animals are then removed and relocated safely. 

Image: Andy Wallis (Image: Andy Wallis)

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From the Boathouse pub to the Bishops Mill, gravel berms will be installed along parts of the channel to reduce the width at low flow ensuring the water flows through at the right speed to create the ideal habitat.

Salisbury River Park Project Lead, Andy Wallis said: “To avoid any potential impact on wildlife during these works, we firstly, have to time the work outside of the fish migration season (July to October), but also need to ensure we do not harm any wildlife that may still be there at that time.

“In particular. this involves trapping and translocating any water voles that are currently using this area and then doing works to ensure no new voles try to use the burrows in the area until we have finished the work.”

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Water voles are found along riverbanks and may at first look similar to the brown rat, but the nose is blunt, the ears are small and the tail is furry. It is under serious threat from habitat loss. 

Traps have been in place for over a week, and only three water voles have been caught at this time which reflects the poor habitat there at the moment.

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Andy said: “These have been transferred to the same site near Ringwood where other voles were moved to and we have been able to check on them now they have come out of hibernation. There is plenty of evidence that they are prospering.

“We survey the area on the Mill Stream twice daily to look for any fresh signs of voles, but we are now at a stage where we have had a long enough period of time without any signs that voles are there that means we can move into the next stage of strimming back vegetation around the burrows and temporarily preventing access into the burrows in the area.”

Once the work is completed in the summer, the banks will be allowed to revegetate and there is some confidence that water voles will return to the area and monitoring will continue to take place.