There is the potential to control other undesirable aliens such as grey squirrels and invasive plants

It is an American mink, with its quickly pattering feet making it appear to almost glide over the steep inclines and recesses of the bank. Often the mink will continue on its way, probing here and there for food, but on other occasions it may plop into the water and disappear from view.

The mink is bolder than many other wild mammals and will often approach close to a person without paying the slightest attention. An animal once literally walked over my feet on the banks of Loch Ness, and I've had other similar close encounters over the years.

There can be few animals in recent decades that have caused as much controversy as the mink. A native of North America, it was first introduced into this country in the 1920s for fur farming. Inevitably some animals escaped, resulting in it becoming well established in the wild by the early 1960s.

The resultant environmental havoc has been severe. The American mink is thought to be largely responsible for the near catastrophic decline in the native water vole. It also preys upon young salmon and trout, moorhens and teal, and decimates fragile populations of ground-nesting birds such as Arctic terns and waders.

An eradication project has been underway in the Western Isles since 2001 but such was the extent of the range of the mink in mainland Scotland that it was thought it would be all but impossible to eradicate the species on a wider scale. But the recent completion of a unique 1m three-year partnership project led by Professor Xavier Lambin at Aberdeen University and involving conservation scientists, policy-makers, organisations such as Cairngorms National Park Authority, fisheries boards and local communities has taken a massive step towards achieving that aim.

The project involved the help of 186 volunteers and many other interested parties and resulted in the removal of all breeding mink from a 10,570km swathe of north east Scotland. Prof Lambin maintains that this is the largest effort ever undertaken in the world to successfully remove an invasive species from a mainland environment.

Specially designed "mink rafts" were used to establish whether mink were in the area - the rafts featured a clay plate that displayed the footprints of any mink that had used it. Traps were set for mink found to be in the area, which were then humanely despatched.

What most enthuses Prof Lambin about the project is that it highlights the potential of drawing upon the power of dedicated volunteers and organisations to deliver conservation projects that would otherwise be unobtainable because of their sheer scale. There is, for example the potential to use such initiatives to control other undesirable aliens such as grey squirrels and invasive plants.

"The main factor underpinning the success of this project was the involvement of volunteers," he says. "There is reason for optimism that the tide of non-native invasion can be rolled back on a large scale where the convergent interest of local communities can be harnessed."

Now that the project has run its course, an exciting initiative has just been launched to build upon its success involving partners Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland (Rafts), Scottish Wildlife Trust, University of Aberdeen, Scottish Natural Heritage and more than 16 other organisations.

The project will establish a strategic monitoring and control zone across much of the north, extending from Montrose in the east to Ullapool in the west. As these areas gradually become mink-free, it is hoped to eventually expand the zone further south.

The area coverage of the new project will be twice that of the previous one at over 20,000km with project officers based in Highland, Cairngorms/Moray, Aberdeenshire and rural Tayside to help manage its implementation.

• This article was first published in The Scotsman on 09/04/2011