The River Path The River Path
The Otter
It is with cautious optimism that we celebrate the gradual return of the otter, and especially apt that we do so on the Stour in Dorset. Otters never completely disappeared from the Stour, Frome and Piddle as they did from rivers elsewhere, but after years of decline, their numbers are now increasing.
Otters have had much to contend with. In the 1970s the otter hunts realised too late that their quarry was getting increasingly difficult to find. The introduction of persistent hydrocarbon pesticides such as DDT, Dieldrin and Aldrin in the 1950s, which found their way into our rivers and streams, was discovered to be the cause of the otters' initial demise.
At about the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food inadvertantly set about the destruction of their habitat - the removal of bankside trees, drainage of wetlands and the straightening and canalisation of rivers - which left the sensibly shy, nocturnal otter fewer secure places in which to lie up.
During the 1970s, Angela King (now a director of Common Ground) helped initiate Friends of the Earth's Otter Campaign to fight for the legal protection of the otter. Their efforts, and those of other environmental groups, paid off in 1978 when the otter was placed on Schedule 1 of the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act, 1975, which made it an offence to attempt to kill, injure or take an otter without a licence in England and Wales.
By 1977 Angela had, with Angela Potter, set up the Otter Haven Project, funded by the Vincent Wildlife Trust, to protect and improve the habitat for otters throughout the country. The very first Otter Haven was on land owned by Mrs Hughes at Hammoon on the River Stour.
Much work has been done by the Environment Agency, wild life and river restoration groups in recent years to bring back the natural features of rivers and to improve the conditions for otters and other species. The Dorset Wildlife Trust now has over 100 volunteers monitoring otter activity and the Dorset Otter Group Newsletter is published quarterly.
But we have no reason to be complacent. The latest threat to otters is the car - six were killed on the roads in Dorset in 2000. Three were found in one illegal eel net in 2002. Each year accidental spills of chemicals and farm slurry kill millions of fish - the otter's main source of food.
Lutra lutra on the Stour
In 2001, as part of Common Ground's music project Confluence, people from the Stour valley were helped by music animateur Helen Porter and professional writer Paul Hyland to create music for the Otter. The resulting choral work "Otter - lutra lutra on the Stour" was first performed in the Minster, Wimborne, Dorset in March of that year, and has had subsequent performances in Shaftesbury, and in Guildford Cathedral.
Paul Hyland says: "It's their paradoxical nature that makes the idea of the otter so compelling. I was charmed by the sight of one when I was twelve and intrigued by their amphibious way of life. They are appealing to look at, and one of the very few species that play vigorously, not only when young, but as adults. But they are not cuddly: they are ruthless predators and aggressive defenders of territory. From a scientific point of view the otter is a barometer of the health of our rivers. That the species has survived the worst excesses of agrochemical pollution and river engineering, and that a growing otter population is now reclaiming its habitat is something to be celebrated."
A new choir was created in Wimborne, including people from as far afield as Mere, Wincanton, Bournemouth and Christchurch, to sing the work. They met for weekly rehearsals from early November.
The concert was extremely well received, described as "by turns shocking, funny, scientific, moving, nostalgic and passionate" by the Blackmore Vale Magazine. A CD (with libretto book), recorded in the Minster over the two nights of the premiere, is available from Common Ground at £16.00 . Look at our Publications pages to buy a copy.
Read more about Lutra Lutra on the Confluence pages of www.commonground.org.uk
