The Westmorland Gazette reports that youngsters at Dean Barwick Primary School, Witherslack, donated all the proceeds from their weekly film club to the Westmorland Red Squirrel Society and raised enough cash for a nest box and feeder. Read more>>
The nestboxes and feeders are for sale and you can find out more about them here>>
Mark Whitley’s country diary – July 2016 – in the latest issue of The Countryman describes the progress that our group is making to protect red squirrels in south east Cumbria. You can read the text of the article here>>
Red squirrels seen in south-east Cumbria in 2015
Westmorland Red Squirrel volunteers install and monitor traps to eradicate grey squirrels
Would you like to play a vital role in an ambitious scheme to revive traditional skills and restore the unique wooded landscape of a wonderful part of South Lakeland? Following a successful, community-led bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Lake District National Park Authority, on behalf of the Rusland Valley & Fells Landscape Partnership, is now looking to recruit six apprentices to help deliver the Rusland Horizons Scheme. If that’s you, or you know someone that might fit the bill, read on>>
A Windermere landowner has just come home from a fortnight away to find about 20 of his trees badly damaged by bark stripping caused by grey squirrels – shown in the photos to the left. All the affected trees were about 30 years old, which is a devastating setback for someone who is working to manage his woodland, and especially so because when he went away he hadn’t been seeing any grey squirrels on his property.
This tree damage is typical of grey squirrels everywhere and has implications for all who are managing woodlands, both for the trees they’ve planted and the wildlife the trees support – it’s not just red squirrels that are affected by grey squirrel presence.
Greys will travel in search of food or new territory, so to remove them from one woodland is simply not enough. What’s needed is a concerted effort by all landowners to remove the greys. There are some times of year when grey squirrels are less evident, so it also needs constant vigilance and a proactive approach to ensure that grey squirrels have not returned to a previously cleared area.
Our first newsletter carried an article on grey squirrel damage to trees at Haverthwaite Heights – see>>
This article by Erik Stokstad appears in the online version of Science. Read the article here>>
Adrian Vass, Manager of the UK Squirrel Accord (UKSA)>> delivered an excellent presentation at this year’s Annual General Meeting on 26 May 2016. Its role is to secure existing red squirrel populations, particularly in northern Britain, and to reverse the damage caused by grey squirrels to broadleaved woodlands and secure multiple benefits across the whole of the UK.
Adrian explained UKSA’s role in encouraging scientific research into vaccines for grey squirrel control and to combat squirrel pox virus in reds. Initiatives to re-introduce red squirrels were also under consideration, provided they meet International Union of Nature Conservation (IUCN) Guidelines, and also to try landscape-scale red squirrel exclosures, initially in North Norfolk, Purbeck and The Lizard peninsula in Cornwall.
Adrian spoke about the British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC) initiative, which involves its members trapping and shooting greys. This is being piloted successfully in the Midlands and could be appropriate in our area. He also spoke about evolving the UKSA membership structure, which could see opportunities for volunteer groups such as ours to be represented on a UKSA Group Forum, which could inform and influence the thinking of the founding signatories.
Red squirrel conservation groups in the North of England and North Wales are doing a remarkable job. Over the last decade thousands of volunteers have swelled the ranks of the dedicated few who refuse to let the red squirrel be lost for ever. Read more>>
The European Squirrel Initiative is delighted to have sponsored this ‘Red squirrel perspectives’ book. This is an important snapshot of the current situation and illustrates the breadth of conservation effort being carried out in our battle to save the red squirrel in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Each chapter demonstrates how diverse the projects are in terms of their geographic location, their size and their membership. We can see that wide and active partnerships are well established across the public, private and voluntary sectors to deal with the grey squirrel from a landscape level to virtual eradication in an urban situation. This book provides an excellent opportunity for us to share good practice and learn from each other’s good and bad experiences.
The e-book is available as a free PDF download (8MB) here>>
A wildlife organisation has criticised the Forestry Commission over its policy of dealing with grey squirrels and claimed the animals should be culled with airguns.
The European Squirrel Initiative (ESI) said the grey squirrel is an invasive, non-native species which is dominating the UK woodland. Read more>>
