New habitats created for wildlife

VOLUNTEERS are hoping to create an inviting habitat for Britain’s fastest declining wild mammal by clearing ditches in Ten Acre Wood.

The site is managed by London Wildlife Trust (LWT) and is rich in wildlife including dragonflies, great spotted woodpecker, kingfisher and deer.

But the conservation volunteers are hoping work to clear overgrown ditches will encourage more animals to make a home in the reserve, including the water vole, Britain’s fastest declining wild mammal.

Tom Hayward, reserves manager with LWT, said: “With luck we will even see the return of water voles, which have suffered a huge population drop due to the destruction of suitable habitat and predidation by American mink.”

Ten Acre Wood, a nature reserve bordering Yeading Brook in Hayes, is open to the public all year round. The work by volunteers is supported with the aid of a grant of

TJG1ST £25,000 from The Veolia Environmental Trust, awarded through the Landfill Communities Fund – where waste companies retain a small part of their Landfill Tax bill and use it to support community and environmental projects.

For more information about the project visit www.wildlondon.org.uk/ reserves/ten-acre-wood.

Contributed n CONSERVATION: Some wildlife species are thriving in the Chilterns, despite the national declines in wildlife. The water vole is one of them