Pine Marten Recovery ProjectRestoring the pine marten to England and Wales

What do we need and why?

The pine marten, a cat-sized native British mammal, needs help to prevent its extinction in England and Wales. The Vincent Wildlife Trust is embarking on an exciting and widely supported six-year project to bring backpine martens to our woodlands. The project needs to raise £800,000 to cover the period 2015 - 2020.

Our priority aim is to translocate pine martens to the best possible habitat in England and Wales, in order to boost the population and help it to recover in southern Britain.

Our approach is scientifically robust, with the support of numerous authorities and expert stakeholders, and we have the welfare and health of the martens very firmly in our sights. Others may attempt translocations, but whilstthey may have worthy aims, their projects may not be adequately resourced. For successful translocations we will need authorisation, proper planning, stakeholder support and the attention to detail that will ensure the best chances of delivering viable populations of martens in places where they will be welcomed. VWT is very well-positioned to deliver on all these aspects of the project.

Why is the pine marten important?

The pine marten is a native British species that was reduced to perilously low numbers by the 1920s, due initially to woodland habitat loss over many centuries and compounded by the extensive control of predators in the 19th century. The pine marten has been protected by law since 1988. In the NERC Act of 2006, the pine marten is a species of principal importance, recovering in Scotland but near to extinction in England and Wales. The race is on to save this species in its former strongholds.

© A.Achterberg

© Terry Whittaker

Your support is crucial

What are we doing about this?

The VWT is playing a key leadership role in designing and taking forward a recovery strategy for England and Wales. We have carried out a feasibility study in liaison with key stakeholders to identify suitable areas for release. We are applying for the appropriate licences to acquire and translocate pine martens from Scotland for release in mid Wales in the autumn of 2015 and 2016. Capture and release of animals will follow internationally approved IUCN guidelines for translocations and post-release monitoring.

A combination of habitat and prey availability, ground-truthing and stakeholder/landholder engagement is being carried out to help finalise exact release site locations and provide baseline data. Please see our Feasibility Report for further details.

What we would like you to consider funding

Overall costs for a pine marten translocation project are estimated to be £1.2 million over the next six years. We are able to allocate a third of this, some £400,000, from our own funds; so for every pound we invest we are looking to lever another £2 from external sources. The fundraising requirement will therefore be £800,000 or some £134,000 per year.

Major funding partners are expected to contribute in the region of £100,000. Fundraising approaches will be made to individuals, charitable trusts and companies for the majority of the fundraising requirement, with any balance being made up by public appeals and donations.

Funding will play a significant part in helping a popular species recovery project to succeed, and as a result we will move a step closer to pine martens once again breeding successfully in Wales and England. © A.Achterberg

What are we doing about this? Why support us?

We are different to other wildlife conservation organisations. We focus on a few mammal species native to Britain and Ireland with unknown or exacting ecological needs, and have long-term expertise in working with these animals. Our niche approach enables us to carry out specialist work; in particular on specific bat species and members of the weasel family. In 2015, the Trust celebrates its 40th anniversary. Further information on our work is available at www.vwt.org.uk

We liken ourselves to a ‘Development Department’ of the mammal conservation sector in Britain and Ireland. Without our involvement, there would have been a slower response, with possibly disastrous consequences, to the decline in our otter and water vole numbers as they both headed towards a population crash in the second half of the 20th century. Thanks to our Founder’s foresight and commitment, we now have a legacy of some 40 thriving horseshoe bat roosts designed by VWT staff, and which are now flagships for the management of these once rare and vulnerable bat species. Our persistent, practical efforts to detect and understand the needs of the pine marten in England and Wales, have led to the current Pine Marten Recovery Project.

The Vincent Wildlife Trust, as the UK’s leading champion for the pine marten, is the best placed organisation to deliver a recovery project, having over 30 years of practical experience with and knowledge of this species.

We are a niche, national organisation with an annual income of less than £1M and although we are small, with only eight core staff, our reach and contacts network for our pine marten work extends across Britain and Ireland.

Our species recovery project will be hands-on and the first step towards bringing back a thriving pine marten population. This can bring lasting benefits to the natural heritage of woodland ecosystems and it is hoped martens will bring additional benefits, including more opportunities for people to see this wonderful animal in its natural habitat (through viewing hides for example - as in Scotland), volunteer training (to monitor the animals) and education opportunities. It is also possible that pine martens can reduce grey squirrel populations, leading to fewer damaged trees and better chances of recovery for our native red squirrel.

The project is not a one-off hit, it is a lasting programme that will not only return a native species to its natural habitat but generate partnerships with woodland habitat initiatives, red and grey squirrel initiatives and eco-tourism initiatives such as ‘Wild days Out’ in Wales. The results of the feasibility study indicate that the best places to release martens are in Wales. If the Wales translocations are deemed a success, the focus will turn to those parts of England where habitat is suitable.

© The Vincent Wildlife Trust 2015 www.vwt.org.uk Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee, Company Registered in England No.05598716 Charity Nos. 1112100 (England), SC043066 (Scotland), DCHY00019 (Ireland)

Notes to Annual Accounts:

Our Investment portfolio of some £16 million provides income to support on-going core costs of the Trust’s charitable activities. Trustees have agreed a policy which allows for this fund to grow in line with inflation to support future core running costs and to lever external funds for specific projects.

The income we achieve each year from the investment portfolio varies according to the state of the investment markets. We therefore have a cash reserves policy which ensures that in the good years, funds are set aside which are then available to help with cash-flow in more difficult years.

Contact us

Natalie Buttriss, Chief Executive Mobile: 07964 353871 | Email: nataliebuttriss@vwt.org.uk

Matthew Norman, TrusteeMobile: 07788 585451 | Email: matthew.n@familyofficecouncil.com

Address: 3 & 4 Bronsil Courtyard, Eastnor, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 1EPTel: 01531 636441

Visit our website for more information: www.pine-marten-recovery-project.org.uk

© A.Achterberg