Working with partners at The National Trust, The Woodland Trust and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has led a project to relocate the native white-clawed crayfish in lakes at Kedleston Hall, which are under threat from the non-native signal crayfish present downstream at Markeaton Park, and move them to a new site where their numbers can grow. 

Teams from all four charities spent a day checking artificial refuge traps that were placed at strategic locations through the lakes system at points where concentrated populations of white-clawed crayfish exist, and performing health checks on the crayfish at Kedleston to ensure they were ready for the move. The following day, the crayfish were collected and transported to a secret location owned by the Woodland Trust in Derbyshire where it is hoped the crayfish will thrive.

Nick Mott, River Restoration Manager at Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, and Pete Cowley, Technical Director of Aquatic Ecology at AECOM in Nottingham, have been involved in the project over the last year, undertaking surveys, giving technical guidance and carrying out eDNA sampling to ensure that everything was in place prior to the crayfish translocation. Members of the AECOM Aquatic Ecology and Water Environment team have utilised Social Value days to assist with the crayfish translocation. 

A generous donation of a pallet of bricks from Ibstock Brick Company have been provided to help with the building of artificial refuges and trapping of the white-clawed crayfish. In addition to this we received free e-DNA sampling kits from Nature Metrics who then processed the water samples to check for crayfish plague and the presence of white-clawed crayfish and american signal crayfish. 

The species has been in decline since non-native American signal crayfish escaped into UK waters in the 1970s. Signal crayfish are bigger and stronger than the white-clawed, can feed on them, out- compete them for homes and food, and carry a disease fatal to the UK species. 

Kath Stapley, project lead and Living Rivers Officer at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, said:

“Despite ongoing conservation efforts, sadly it is only matter of time before the signal crayfish downstream make their way into the lake systems at Kedleston and eventually wipe out this protected species in these lakes.  

“The signal crayfish also threatens other species and will significantly reduce the biodiversity here. We therefore want to remove as many of the white-clawed crayfish as possible and take them to sites where this threat is much lower. This is the first translocation we have undertaken here, but we hope to translocate more white-clawed crayfish from Kedleston each year, as long as it is safe to do so.  

“This project has been a huge team effort and we are delighted to be working with our partners to protect white-clawed crayfish as part of our mission for nature's recovery.” 

Stephen Wright, Lakes Project Officer and Ranger for National Trust, added:

“Kedleston Hall has been given a unique opportunity to conserve the endangered, white-clawed crayfish in our lakes. Despite only weighing around 90g, this keystone species is vital to our ecology, helping keep rivers clean and healthy.

“One of the core purposes of the National Trust is nature conservation. We are delighted to be able to play our part, working with multiple partners including Derbyshire Wildlife Trust to achieve this aim.”  

James Jesson, who is managing the site for the Woodland Trust where the crayfish are being released, added:

“We are delighted that we are able to work with our conservation partners to provide the site for the relocation of such a special yet threatened species. We hope these crayfish go on to thrive in this area which we will continue to work hard to protect into the future.”

The project is funded by the Government's Green Recovery Challenge Fund and The Species Recovery Programme. The Green Recovery Challenge Fund was developed by Defra and its Arm's-Length Bodies. It is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England, the Environment Agency and Forestry Commission. The Species Recovery Programme has delivered urgent targeted action to halt and reverse declines of our most threatened and priority species for the past 30 years. 

Find out more about white-clawed crayfish and the conservation project to protect them here.