A leading wildlife organisation has scooped a major national award recognising work done to restore native species to the UK.
The Wildwood Trust, based in Herne Common, between Canterbury and Herne Bay, beat off 25 other shortlisted projects to win the Great British Wildlife Restoration competition.
The Wildwood Trust won the top prize
The award was presented at a special ceremony held at Speaker’s House in the Palace of Westminster.
It won for the key role it played in the return of water voles to Surrey – where the species had been absent for decades.
It bred around 50 water voles that were then released into rivers and wetlands.
Paul Whitfield, director general of the Wildwood Trust, said: “Winning this award is absolutely fantastic, as it is a real endorsement of the work Wildwood has been doing for the past two decades.
“This project involved the release of 50 water voles and, within that same breeding programme, we also reached a major milestone – releasing our 2,000th captive-bred water vole back into the wild.
Wildwood has bred water voles for the project. Picture: iStock
“We have an outstanding conservation team delivering these projects, and our work goes far beyond water voles. It includes red squirrels, pine martens, beavers and many more species. At present, we are running 12 active native species reintroduction projects, and we are aiming to increase that number to nearly 20 by the end of the year.”
The Great British Wildlife Restoration is organised by BIAZA (British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums) and aims to shine a spotlight on some of the work taking place to tackle the drastic decline of our native species.