Saltisford joins the effort to protect our waterways from American mink
Visitors to Saltisford may have noticed two rather unusual black floating structures positioned at opposite ends of the canal arm recently.
They are part of an American mink monitoring programme being carried out by the Waterlife Recovery Trust, a charity working across Britain to protect native wildlife from the impact of this invasive non-native predator.
We were contacted by Jade Parker-Burton from the Waterlife Recovery Trust, who subsequently visited Saltisford to deliver, assemble and position two raft-based mink traps. By hosting the rafts, Saltisford Canal Trust is helping the project build a better picture of mink activity across Warwickshire and, where necessary, take action to protect vulnerable native wildlife.
Why are American mink a problem?
American mink are not native to Britain. They were originally imported from North America for fur farming, beginning in the early twentieth century. Animals subsequently escaped or were released and breeding populations became established in the wild. Today they are widely distributed across Britain and are officially regarded as an invasive non-native species.
Mink are extremely capable predators. They are semi-aquatic and are particularly at home around rivers, streams, canals, lakes and wetlands. They eat a remarkably wide variety of prey including fish, frogs, crayfish, small mammals and birds. Moorhens, kingfishers, ground-nesting birds and other waterside wildlife can all be taken.
The species that has suffered particularly badly is the water vole.
Water voles have experienced a dramatic decline in Britain as a result of a combination of habitat loss, degradation and predation by American mink. Female mink are small and agile enough to enter water vole burrows at the water's edge, removing one of the places in which the voles would otherwise be able to escape predators.
This is particularly relevant in Warwickshire. Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has been working for many years to restore water vole habitat and reports that the species is now making a comeback in parts of the county. Continued monitoring for American mink is one of the measures needed to give those recovering populations the best chance of spreading through our connected network of rivers and canals.
Mink are great travellers
Although strongly associated with water, mink can cover considerable distances.
They are territorial animals, with males typically occupying stretches of waterway around 1 to 6 kilometres long, while females generally have smaller territories. Their dens are normally close to water. This means that canals and rivers can act as natural corridors through which mink move across the landscape.
Their movements also vary through the year. The Waterlife Recovery Trust records increased catches during the juvenile dispersal period from roughly August to October and again during the mating season from January to April. Monitoring therefore needs to continue over long periods rather than relying simply on occasional sightings.
How do the Saltisford rafts work?
The equipment at Saltisford is known as a smart mink raft.
Mink have a natural tendency to investigate floating platforms and tunnels. Placing a trap on a floating raft therefore provides an effective way of detecting animals travelling along a waterway, while reducing the likelihood of terrestrial animals wandering into the trap. This is why the Waterlife Recovery Trust uses raft-based systems for the great majority of its monitoring sites.
Inside the covered section is a live-capture cage trap. The system can also incorporate an electronic remote monitoring unit which detects when the trap door closes and sends an alert so that the trap can be attended promptly. One advantage of a live-capture system is that any non-target animal can be identified and released unharmed.
So although they might look rather mysterious sitting quietly against the canal bank, the rafts are very deliberately designed pieces of conservation equipment.
The Waterlife Recovery Trust
The Waterlife Recovery Trust became a registered charity in 2022, growing out of the Waterlife Recovery East project which began in 2019. The original project brought together wildlife organisations, water managers, landowners, fishing interests and volunteers to investigate whether coordinated mink control over a very large area could make a meaningful difference to native wildlife.
That work has since developed into a much wider programme. By April 2026 the Trust reported that its network had expanded to more than 3,200 smart mink rafts across over 50 counties.
The approach is deliberately landscape-scale. Removing mink from one isolated nature reserve offers only temporary protection if animals can simply move back in from neighbouring waterways. A network of monitoring sites across interconnected rivers, brooks and canals provides a much better picture of where mink remain and where action is required.
That makes locations such as Saltisford useful pieces in a much larger jigsaw.
Saltisford playing its part
The Saltisford Canal Arm is much more than a place to keep boats. Its water, banks, trees, hedgerows and quieter corners form part of a connected wildlife corridor running into the wider canal and waterway network.
Hosting the two Waterlife Recovery Trust rafts is a relatively small contribution on our part, but multiplied across hundreds and now thousands of sites it becomes a powerful conservation network.
We are therefore very pleased to support Jade and the Waterlife Recovery Trust with their work and will be interested to see what the monitoring at Saltisford reveals.
And, of course, if you're visiting Saltisford and spot one of the strange black floating boxes at the side of the canal, now you know what it is and why it's there.
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