A 2017 survey by Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) has indicated that red squirrels in Scotland have stabilised throughout much of the country, although there are regional differences. For example, there have been gains in the north-east around Aberdeen where grey squirrels have been extensively culled, and gains around Loch Lomand and the Trossachs National Park, […]
A new 354 ha forest is to be planted at Doddington North Moor, in Northumberland in the north of England over the next two to three years. The Forestry Commission have approved plans for planting >600,000 trees,; these will include 146 ha of Sitka spruce, 72 ha of native broadleaves and 46 ha of Scots […]
An EU funded and National Lottery Sciurus Life project is launched that will enable local communities across the north of England and Wales to become involved in conserving the red squirrel. The Sciurius Life project aims are to: Develop mechanisms to prevent the unintentional introduction of grey squirrels to currently uncolonised woodland landscapes; Develop early warning/rapid response mechanisms to ensure the island of Anglesey in North Wales is not recolonised; Develop rapid response mechanisms to mitigate the impacts of grey squirrels in urban woodlands with high biodiversity and tourism value; Develop early warning systems to detect grey squirrels in sparsely populated rural landscapes; Develop more efficient strategic mechanisms to evolve community-based grey squirrel management; Quantify the financial and community-based resources needed to achieve regional eradication; […]
A new Caledonian Forest Wildlife Project in Scotland involving Trees for Life and the Highland Foundation for Wildlife plans to translocate red squirrels from thriving populations in Moray and Inverness to 10 new locations – these sites still to be confirmed. The Project will be funded by a grant of £61,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (see […]
Christopher Nichols writes about his recently started PhD project, “The economic cost to the GB forestry industry from bark stripping in beech, sycamore and oak is estimated at £10 million per year (Forestry Commission, 2004). The aims of this project are to discover the reasons why grey squirrels strip the bark from trees and to […]
Conservation efforts to return red squirrels to the island of Angelsey off the north west coast of Wales have gone so well that red squirrels are now being seen in people’s gardens. Over the past 15 years, conservation work has involved removing alien grey squirrels and reintroducing red squirrels to boost the dwindling population. Now […]
Red Squirrels Northern England (RSNE) is a red squirrel conservation partnership in the north of England, principally in Cumbria, Northumberland, Merseyside, Lancashire, north-west Durham and the Yorkshire Dales. Visit their web site if you want to join a red squirrel group, send in a sighting or find out where to see red squirrels in these regions.
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Friends of the Anglesey Red Squirrels (FARS) are planning to cull large numbers of grey squirrels in the area between Bangor and the Ogwen Valley. Red squirrels have spread from Anglesey to the Mainland as a result if the intensive conservation measures carried out on the island by Craig Shuttleworth and colleagues largely involving removing […]
Following extensive trials of camera trap locations, settings and protocols at Edinburgh Botanical gardens in 2009, a two year research project is now under way in Cumbria to test the use of camera traps for red squirrel monitoring. The Queen Mary, London University led research project by John Gurnell, Corrie Bruemmer and Peter Lurz investigates […]