Red Squirrel Population

Research is under way to identify likely grey squirrel incursion corridors. It will provide a scientific base for targeting grey squirrel control measures. The scale of management already under way reflects the severity of the situation. In Kielder forest, the largest of the reserves, which extends to an area almost 1.5 times the size of the Isle of Wight, large-seeded broadleaf species such as oak, which favour the grey squirrel, are no longer being planted. Felling and replanting take the red squirrel’s needs into account, and Norway spruce is being planted so that red squirrels need not rely solely on the cone crop from Sitka spruce. The Red Alert partnership has been successful in its bid by the Northumberland Wildlife Trust to the Heritage Lottery Fund, to which hon. Members have alluded, for £626,000 to help to deliver its £1.1 million three-year project plan. One of the plan’s key elements is the recruitment of a team to help and encourage landowners in the buffer zones to undertake habitat management and grey squirrel control. The project manager has been appointed and further staff are being recruited. Delivery of the partnership’s plans will proceed in earnest in early autumn. We are also helping with support provided by the Forestry Commission through the English woodland grant scheme. There has been a healthy demand in the north-east for the £30,000 available under the woodland improvement grant, which provides up to 80 per cent. of the cost of conservation work in red squirrel reserves and buffer zones. In response to the questions of the hon. Member for Hexham about future funding, I am pleased to tell him that next year’s budget for such grants in the north-east and north-west will total £50,000. Alongside that, the woodland management grant can contribute to the cost of woodland management to favour red squirrels. The Rural Development Service in the north-east has received an application for assistance under the rural enterprise scheme for a red squirrel protection group, which will be considered soon. Although the application was made independently, the Red Alert partnership has been working with the applicant to co-ordinate their efforts, and it supports the application. It is impossible to consider the red squirrel without considering the grey, which in one way or another appears largely responsible for the red’s displacement. In another place, Lord Inglewood gave DEFRA Ministers an invitation to dine on grey squirrel in a hotel in the Lake district. Even if his offer still stands, I would find it difficult to say that I am tempted. I understand from the hon. Member for Leominster that squirrel was Elvis Presley’s favourite dish, but it would certainly not be mine and would probably put me off his music for a long time.