Why are water voles so important? 

Water voles are in crisis; once a common sight along our rivers and canals, there has been a 90% decline in their numbers since the 1970s. Population loss of a native species on this scale has an inevitable knock-on effect for all that surrounds it, so here at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust we’re on a mission to bring back the water vole. 

Water voles play an important role in maintaining healthy wetland ecosystems. As they feed and burrow, they aerate the soil, spread nutrients, and help create habitat for a wide range of other wildlife. By recovering water vole populations and reintroducing these mammals to areas where they were previously present, we can help restore balance to our ecosystems. 

Who and what do water voles help? 

• Wildflowers and plants 

As water voles burrow and feed, they promote soil microbial activity, improve drainage and soil quality, and disperse seeds and pollen. This in turn helps plants and wildflowers thrive along the water’s edge. Water voles also graze on bankside vegetation, boosting biodiversity by ensuring no one plant becomes overdominant. 

• Insects 

More plant life and more wildflowers along our waterways mean more fuel for pollinators such as bumblebees, moths and butterflies. Water vole burrows, as well as an abundance of riverbank fauna, also provide insects with much-needed places to find shelter. 

• Amphibians and reptiles. 

Water voles create complex burrows and chambers within ditches, streams and riverbanks, in which they nest and reproduce, and seek shelter during the harsh winter months. Amphibians and reptiles, including common toads, great crested newts and smooth newts, as well as small mammals, use these burrow systems for refugia, and rely upon bankside vegetation and insects for food.  

• Bats 

An increase in the number of flying insects alongside our rivers and canals provides much-needed sustenance for bats, many species of whom depend on a healthy wetland habitat for survival. Daubenton’s Bats forage low over the open water and riverbanks to hunt the midges and moths drawn to vole-enriched vegetation. 

• Birds 

Healthy, water vole-managed wetlands are essential for the well-being of many wading bird species such as snipe and lapwing who nest and raise young here. A rich, diverse ecosystem, full of thriving insects and small creatures, also supports the bird populations that feed upon them, including swifts, swallows and house martins. 

What are we doing about water vole numbers? 

At Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, we have been working hard to protect and recover our county’s water voles. Our ongoing fundraising appeal aims to raise £25,000 by 30^th September 2026, to help support our work with this precious species. We need to continue protecting and restoring habitats along waterways and within our nature reserves so that water vole populations can begin to recover.  

Additionally, our Water Vole Recovery Project, generously funded by Natural England, Severn Trent and the Environment Agency, has overseen the release of 214 captive-bred water voles at Idle Valley Nature Reserve in the hope that they will continue to breed and repopulate the site.