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Water Vole Habitat - Water Vole Conservation - Water Vole UK

Kennet and Avon Canal Dredging Creates Habitat For Water Voles

British Waterways is looking to the past to help preserve the future for one of the canals’ most loved, but secretive species, the protected UK water vole.

As part of a £600,000 project on the Kennet & Avon Canal, which celebrated turning 200 in December 2010, a 2.5km stretch of waterway embankment near Hungerford, Wiltshire, will be rebuilt. The modern day canal builders are looking back to the ideas of the canal’s original creator, famous civil engineer, John Rennie, to help them come up with solutions to modern day problems. One big issue is how to create natural looking, stable canal banks that are also water vole friendly habitat.

British Waterways’ senior project engineer, Antonia Zotali explains: “This winter British Waterways in partnership with Natural England and the Trustees of the Town and Manor of Hungerford, is rebuilding stretches of the waterway banks near Hungerford as part of its continued work to maintain the nation’s historic waterways.

“The banks have, over the years, been eroded by boat wash, cattle grazing, soil conditions and even burrowing invasive crayfish. It would be very easy to just say we are going to rebuild the banks using concrete and steel, but this wouldn’t reflect the special canal heritage and environment so we are using more natural methods to do the job.”

The canal banks are being rebuilt by recycling the sediment dredged from the bottom of the canal. Dredging is done to help keep the canal navigable for boats, and in this scheme, provides the perfect material for rebuilding the canal banks. The freshly dredged material is held in place by a below water-level shelf , supplemented by a reed planting scheme which includes a line of tussock sedges, just as John Rennie did 200 years ago.

British Waterways’ ecologist, Oda Dijksterhuis said: “Tussock sedges are brilliant plants to use as part of this scheme to rebuild the waterway banks. By planting the sedge we will create a fringe of greenery along the water’s edge. John Rennie originally planted tussock sedges when the canal was first built because as the plant grows, and its roots form, they help to knit the soil and sediment together, stopping erosion and defending the bank.

“The best part of it though is that tussock sedge also provides a great habitat for water voles. They provide a good food source, and in this area the voles can even make their homes in the beds of sedge that are planted.”

Water Vole Habitat Conservation UK

Usually water voles burrow into a soft canal or river bank, but here they modify their homes to live in the tussock sedge, building their nests amongst the reeds, hidden away from predators.

Oda Dijksterhuis, comments: “Water voles are real canal characters, and we are doing all that we can to help them rebuild their populations. Protecting their precious habitat is a vital part of this work. It’s great that we can return to green techniques first used when the canal was originally constructed to help protect our waterways for everyone to enjoy.”

The Kennet & Avon Canal - In 2010 the Kennet & Avon Canal celebrated the 200th anniversary of its opening in 1810. The canal winds its way 87 miles from Reading to Bath, before joining the River Avon and linking to Bristol. The canal is a 200-year-old feat of engineering, originally built as a trade route, now supporting a thriving leisure industry following a record £25 million restoration project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Kennet & Avon Canal is managed and maintained by British Waterways, in partnership with the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust, local authorities and numerous volunteer groups. The canal is a diverse wildlife habitat, home to an impressive array of historic industrial architecture, a leisure boating route, a long distance path, a holiday destination and much more to many thousands of people who visit each year.