Mink Control Project Officer: South London

The Waterlife Recovery Trust

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.

Job Overview

A part-time fixed term post (24 hours per week) is available to cover Greater London south of
the River Thames for a period ending on 31 March 2025. If follow-on funding is secured, the
post may be renewable. The employer is the Waterlife Recovery Trust, and the post is funded
through a grant from the Rewild London fund to The Zoological Society of London and a grant from
the People’s Trust for Endangered Species. The area is adjacent to a wide scale water vole
recovery project funded under Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme, the Thames to
Lincoln Project (TtoL). This already covers London north of the Thames. The purpose of the
project is to remove invasive American mink, to protect endangered water voles and other native
wildlife and allow their populations to recover. The PO will work closely with staff working on
the TtoL project.

The post-holder will develop a mink control network across south London using ‘smart’ mink
traps monitored by volunteers. The project will use adaptive management techniques to maximise
efficiency; the ‘best practice’ for humane mink trapping developed to date is detailed on the
WRT website.

The post will be home-based, ideally in an appropriate location in south London suitable to
cover Greater London south of the Thames. The Project Officer (PO) will be expected to use their own vehicle for travel
and moving equipment but receive a mileage rate for doing so. Flexibility in working hours will
be key; this is not a 9-5 weekday office job. Although POs will not be expected to exceed 24
hours a week on average, the time will be spread over more than 3 days, some weeks will be
busier than others. At least a few minutes of web-based work will be needed every day,
including at weekends, to support volunteers with any problems and to ensure that our work is
always carried out to the highest animal welfare standards.

All necessary training will be provided.