What support is being provided in relation to conservation work for water vole populations.

The principal threat to water voles in Scotland comes from non-native American mink. For this reason, strategic mink control is generally considered to be the most effective means of helping Scottish water vole populations.
Various mink control measures have been put in place, for example during the Cairngorms Water Vole Conservation project (2007-2009), the Scottish Mink Initiative (2011–2015) and most recently through the current Scottish Invasive Species Initiative. All of these projects have been supported by Scottish Natural Heritage, both in terms of finance and staff resources.
The Trossachs Water Vole project, which is a partnership between Forestry and Land Scotland, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority and the Forth Rivers Trust, is helping water vole populations in the area to continue to expand through the monitoring of their population, creation of suitable wetland habitat and control of the numbers of American mink in the area.
As a result of these measures, water voles numbers are recovering in various locations across Scotland, including the Balmoral Estate on Deeside, Invermark, Glen Doll and Caenlochan National Nature Reserve and several other localities elsewhere in the north east of Scotland.
There are other expanding water vole populations in the Central Region that do not require any mink control. Forestry and Land Scotland work as a partner in the Seven Lochs Heritage Project, which has one of the main water vole populations at Easterhouse in Glasgow. The Project will focus on identifying, surveying and managing key water vole sites to better understand the distribution of riparian and fossorial (grassland) water vole populations in the Seven Lochs Project area. The project will also create areas of suitable high quality habitat and habitat networks, and work on education and raising awareness of water vole populations, their national significance and future conservation needs.