SQUIRRELS, SQUIRRELS EVERYWHERE

I’d like to start this piece with some extraordinary figures. A recent report for the Royal Forestry Society detailed the cost of grey squirrel damage per year to woodlands – broadleaf and conifers – in England and Wales. A low-damage scenario put the total cost at £2m per year, a medium-damage scenario at £22.8m and a highlevel scenario of damage – defined as 25% or more of broadleaf trees for example – at £37m. The total estimated area to have been affected by grey squirrels in England and Wales is close to 23,000 hectares – nearly 57,000 acres! And that damage, we all know, is caused by the stripping away of protective bark around the trees.

The first squirrels were introduced to the UK from America by