Saving Water Voles: A Huge Success For Species Recovery

With the dedication of over 70 volunteers contributing 1,000+ hours, we have successfully installed 830 metres of coir roll along the Coventry canal, creating vital habitat for Water Voles and other wildlife. Written by Adam Sutton

Photo showing before and after the installation of coir roll along the Coventry canal

As reported in the first half of 2024, we’ve had a significant volunteer contingent helping us with the installation of ‘Coir rolls for Water Voles’ and I’d like to share a massive thanks to all of you who have gotten involved, as the project has been a great success!

Photo of a group of volunteers installing coir roll

Over the past 12 months, with the dedication of over 70 volunteers contributing 1,000+ hours, we have successfully installed 830 metres of coir roll along the Coventry canal, creating vital habitat for Water Voles and other wildlife. As time goes by the vegetation we’ve installed in the form of 3-metre long coir rolls, will grow up to provide connected shelter for Water Voles, but will also support pollinators like bees and butterflies, as well as providing refuge for dragonflies and damselflies.

Photo of volunteers installing coir rolls

Anyone involved with this project, will know it’s been no small feat. It’s involved physical work, teamwork and sometimes quite fiddly tasks – from installing rolls along the canal banks, to working from a pontoon or narrowboat. In addition to the coir rolls, we have also installed 20 Water Vole Motels – planted baskets filled with soil and aquatic plants – creating stepping stones of habitat to help connect Water Vole populations and encourage range expansion. Whilst we haven’t seen any using the coir rolls or planted baskets yet, we have seen them be used by an array of other wildlife such as ducks, swans, dragonflies and even the odd escaped terrapin!

As well as completing the above work to help Water Voles in the summer, we’ve also enhanced 2 kilometres of hedgerows nearby to canals or streams, to help provide berries or habitat cover during Autumn and Winter months.

A big thank you again to all our volunteer helpers, and hopefully we will see our first Water Voles on the coir rolls this coming summer.