The Trust is a charity, registered in 2022, with origins in the Waterlife Recovery East (WRE) project. WRE started in 2019 when partners from the long running East Anglian Mink and Water Vole Group joined with others from the fields of wildlife conservation, water management, game shooting and fishing. All shared the goal of bringing life back to the waterways and wetlands of East Anglia, through the removal of one highly damaging invasive, non-native species: the American Mink Neogale vison.

The original WRE project had three linked objectives:

• to humanely control mink throughout East Anglia,
• to see if eradication was possible at a wide geographical scale,
• to develop and spread the use of best practice for mink control.

Underpinning this was the vision that an effective model could be developed which could then be used to promote mink control, and ultimately eradication, throughout Great Britain. The Waterlife Recovery Trust was formed to help make this vision a reality by facilitating the development of a ‘family’ of catchment-based mink projects working throughout the country.

With support from our partners and hundreds of citizen scientist volunteers we have been able to show that eradication is achievable using trapping alone. We now need to encourage others to be part of the family and together roll out best practice across the country.

Details of the WRE operational plan and eradication trial is available here.

Professor Tony Martin, Chair

Simon Baker MSc, Vice Chair

Bennie van der berg, Treasurer

David Wege MSc, Secretary

Professor Bill Amos