At a recent Parish Council Meeting Jacqui Foott from the Northern Red Squirrels Group came to give a talk. Her talk highlighted a number of issues. Road kill is the main way the squirrel population is depleted and in the past there has been a good initiative to put up signs encouraging drivers to slow down along the valley – do we need to do this more?
Two bad winters appear to have reduced numbers – do we need to look at ways of helping squirrels survive the winter? More feeders or nest boxes perhaps? There may be Community Wildlife Funding for this kind of initiative. Is this something which Garsdale should pursue?
Garsdale Parish Council 
#1 by Stefan Kosciuszko on 18/05/2011 - 6:26 am
Last night (May 17th) another interesting meeting was held with Jacqui Foott at the Village Hall to discuss the sterling work undertaken by the Northern Red Squirrels Group. One view formed is that the current emphasis upon control and recording of greys leaves plenty of room to promote other initiatives to encourage the growth in population of reds. Already many people are making their own individual efforts.
In Garsdale we have a quite unique 10 mile valley corridor that with a coordinated approach could lend itself geographically, habitat, and community spirit wise to a real effort to create a natural haven for reds. “Garsdale – A Red Squirrel Zone” has a nice ring to it…..
Does anyone know of examples of what can be done to promote reds, examples of what other communities have achieved and has an interest to get involved?