A project that seeks to bring water voles back into Sherwood Forest has moved a step forward.

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust is aiming to restore water vole populations in at least three catchments across the county — Erewash, Sherwood Forest, and Idle.

Now the Nottinghamshire Water Vole Recovery Project — one of more than 60 projects aimed at recovering a wide range of England’s scarcest animals and plants, supported by £14.5m of funding via Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme — has released more than 100 captive-bred water voles at the trust’s Idle Valley Nature Reserve, near Retford.

They were introduced into a 58-hectare enclosure, which was originally created to enable the reintroduction of beavers in 2021.

In preparation for the release, the charity has been delivering targeted mink control and habitat creation within the Idle catchment. In addition, staff have been controlling mink on three rivers in the Sherwood Forest area.

Gary Cragg, Nottinghamshire Water Vole Project manager, said: “Our beaver enclosure at the Idle Valley Nature Reserve provides a unique setting to establish an ark site for water voles to enable us to bring these important and valuable mammals back.

“In time, we hope they will disperse from the ark site across the whole 375 hectares of the reserve and along the River Idle.”

It is widely acknowledged that the water vole is the UK’s fastest declining mammal. Surveys for the species in Nottinghamshire last year found them to be almost entirely absent from sites where they were recorded historically.

The trust’s head of Nature Recovery (North), Janice Bradley, said: “The evidence is stark and clear, without urgent action, the future for water voles in our county is bleak and we risk losing this much-loved species forever from Nottinghamshire.

“The support of Natural England’s Species Recovery Capital Grant Scheme and Severn Trent (help) has finally given us the resources to match our long-held ambitions. After months of hard work reducing mink numbers and improving habitat to support water voles and other wetland species, it is so exciting to be able to carry out the county’s first ever mass release of water voles.”

Speaking on behalf of Natural England, Karen Shelley-Jones, species recovery programme manager, added: “It is enormously pleasing to work with partners like Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust to deliver action to recover our threatened species.

“This is one of several projects we are supporting to tackle the impact of invasive non-native species on our native wildlife.

“A carefully-coordinated programme of habitat enhancement, mink control, licensed captive rearing, and thorough health checks was needed to get to this stage.

“Strategic joint working across organisations is so important to help us address the Environment Act target to reduce the risk of species’ extinction.”

The trust also expects the project to provide the foundations for a countywide recovery programme in the years ahead and is currently seeking funds to support the project for next year.