Westmorland Red Squirrel Society
Protecting our wonderful red squirrel population.
Contact Details:
Dave Marshall
Yewbarrow Terrace
Witherslack
Email: [email protected]
Witherslack is a very special place for many reasons and one of these is that it has, at the end of 2010 (and I am confident in 2011 at least) still has a population of red squirrels alive and well gathering themselves food and getting ready for winter. This is fantastic news and a very rare thing in this area, but sadly their fate is far from secure and even though they have survived against all odds until now the majority of them (and there aren’t hundreds of them) are about to have their homes ripped out from under them.
If Witherslack has a lot of anything then its trees, but the two woods that most of the red squirrels live in are conifer plantations that now belong to Cumbria Wildlife trust and CWT are intending to clear fell the majority of them as part of the continuing bog restoration project. A vast swathe of these plantations were felled several years ago and the remaining ring of trees around the perimeter were left for the wildlife including red squirrels. The raised peat bog project has been a great success but unfortunately even though these mosses (Foulshaw, Meathop and Nichols Moss) are very wet and boggy places they are not wet and boggy enough for CWT (or the scientists who advise them), so the plan is to fell the remaining trees to reduce the amount of water they draw from the bog. These are the ONLY places around here where crossbill live also.
It is vitally important that the deciduous and conifer woods that border these mosses are safe places for any displaced red squirrels to go to or just to naturally breed and spread. For these woods to be safe there needs to be very few grey squirrels living in them. This no small task as nearly all the woods join up with each other and sadly greys have bred to significantly high numbers in some of them.
A variety of people and organisations have been trying to keep the grey squirrels numbers down for years but most of the local conservation and actual hands on work in the woods in our area is carried out by the Westmorland Red Squirrel Society. In Witherslack the members are Bob Bradley and myself David Marshall. Last year we seriously increased the effort. I personally trapped more or less seven days a week during the summer trapping season with great results, and shall carry on like this going forward but we really need help from the people of Witherslack and have a real push through 2011.
There are many ways you can help…
• Tell us where you are seeing lots of grey squirrels — helpful to me but even more helpful is if you have grey squirrels visiting your garden or land and would help me trap them. This can be very easy and this method works amazingly well.
• Is there anyone who can spare a bit of time to help trap in larger areas, no special skills are needed as I can teach anyone all they need to know.
• If you walk a dog daily then you could be a great help, even if you don’t want to actually trap a process of pre baiting is something anyone could help me with.
For the next few months grey squirrels are very difficult to catch but as spring starts to approach I will get very busy and any help will be very much appreciated.
The final way you can help is to support our work by joining Westmorland Red Squirrel Society, either as person or business. We are entirely a volunteer organisation and the funds we raise go directly to saving our red squirrels. It buys traps, bait and sometimes a small travel mileage allowance for trappers.
Please visit www.westmorlandRedSquirrels.org.uk to find out more
I can be contacted through there or www.davemarshallwildlife.co.uk
Many thanks,
Dave Marshall
Contact Details:
Dave Marshall
Yewbarrow Terrace
Witherslack
Email: [email protected]
Witherslack is a very special place for many reasons and one of these is that it has, at the end of 2010 (and I am confident in 2011 at least) still has a population of red squirrels alive and well gathering themselves food and getting ready for winter. This is fantastic news and a very rare thing in this area, but sadly their fate is far from secure and even though they have survived against all odds until now the majority of them (and there aren’t hundreds of them) are about to have their homes ripped out from under them.
If Witherslack has a lot of anything then its trees, but the two woods that most of the red squirrels live in are conifer plantations that now belong to Cumbria Wildlife trust and CWT are intending to clear fell the majority of them as part of the continuing bog restoration project. A vast swathe of these plantations were felled several years ago and the remaining ring of trees around the perimeter were left for the wildlife including red squirrels. The raised peat bog project has been a great success but unfortunately even though these mosses (Foulshaw, Meathop and Nichols Moss) are very wet and boggy places they are not wet and boggy enough for CWT (or the scientists who advise them), so the plan is to fell the remaining trees to reduce the amount of water they draw from the bog. These are the ONLY places around here where crossbill live also.
It is vitally important that the deciduous and conifer woods that border these mosses are safe places for any displaced red squirrels to go to or just to naturally breed and spread. For these woods to be safe there needs to be very few grey squirrels living in them. This no small task as nearly all the woods join up with each other and sadly greys have bred to significantly high numbers in some of them.
A variety of people and organisations have been trying to keep the grey squirrels numbers down for years but most of the local conservation and actual hands on work in the woods in our area is carried out by the Westmorland Red Squirrel Society. In Witherslack the members are Bob Bradley and myself David Marshall. Last year we seriously increased the effort. I personally trapped more or less seven days a week during the summer trapping season with great results, and shall carry on like this going forward but we really need help from the people of Witherslack and have a real push through 2011.
There are many ways you can help…
• Tell us where you are seeing lots of grey squirrels — helpful to me but even more helpful is if you have grey squirrels visiting your garden or land and would help me trap them. This can be very easy and this method works amazingly well.
• Is there anyone who can spare a bit of time to help trap in larger areas, no special skills are needed as I can teach anyone all they need to know.
• If you walk a dog daily then you could be a great help, even if you don’t want to actually trap a process of pre baiting is something anyone could help me with.
For the next few months grey squirrels are very difficult to catch but as spring starts to approach I will get very busy and any help will be very much appreciated.
The final way you can help is to support our work by joining Westmorland Red Squirrel Society, either as person or business. We are entirely a volunteer organisation and the funds we raise go directly to saving our red squirrels. It buys traps, bait and sometimes a small travel mileage allowance for trappers.
Please visit www.westmorlandRedSquirrels.org.uk to find out more
I can be contacted through there or www.davemarshallwildlife.co.uk
Many thanks,
Dave Marshall