Member Article

Two years of conservation success gives English reds real hope

Following three months of spring survey work in 289 different woodlands and gardens across northern England, analysis confirms that red squirrel range has remained stable over the last two years, bucking a trend of over a century of loss in England.

This is the fifth monitoring survey run by the Red Squirrels Northern England (RSNE) project over the last three years. Community volunteers and project staff found red squirrels in the same number of sites as during the autumn 2013 programme, despite seeing an increase of 9% in the number of sites with non-native grey squirrels. Increases in grey squirrel detection were expected following a mild winter and seemingly abundant wild nut and berry supply. This serves a as stark reminder that the future of the red squirrel on the English mainland is entirely in the hands of committed individuals, groups and organisations currently working together to conserve reds by managing intermingled non-native grey squirrel populations.

Especially interesting this spring are the new rash of red squirrel sightings in the northern Yorkshire Dales (Upper Swaledale) and North Pennines (Teesdale, County Durham) where red squirrels had not been detected since the project started in 2012. We hope local communities can help us learn more about the size and health of these potential populations over the next six months, and encourage people to report red squirrel sightings on our website at www.rsne.org.uk/sightings

In Central Northumberland, reds squirrels continue to fare extremely well where communities are working together to conserve them, for instance, at Pegswood Community Woods near Morpeth. Jean Mitchell of ‘Friends of Pegswood Community Woods’ said: “We have been feeding and monitoring our reds regularly and we have seen an increase this year with two new kits. We have had a lot of support from the local community and we will be starting our ‘Adopt a Red Squirrel’ scheme in September, and in South-East Northumberland, there are some fantastic colonies of reds in the eastern urban centres of Ashington, Cramlington and Bedlington.”

The conservation efforts and monitoring producing these fantastic results are supported by Biffa Award, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Nurture Lakeland, Furness Building Society, Forestry Commission and many other committed partners.

Nick Mason, RSNE Project Manager, said: “Our broad conservation community is growing ever more certain that this high quality science is reflecting the positive impact of sustained hard work. Hundreds of people working together, with appropriate investment, are conserving this beautiful animal for 2 million northern English residents to enjoy on their doorsteps. This investment must continue to maintain this success.”

The results (full report at www.rsne.org.uk/squirrel-monitoring-programme) continue to inform conservation effort across northern England and the monitoring programme will run again in spring 2015.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Bishop .