A plan to protect our remaining native red squirrels from being wiped out by the American grey squirrel is to be drawn up by a team of experts.
Minister of State for Forestry John Browne announced he would be funding the two-year project. He said the red squirrel, once widespread in Irish woodlands, is now sadly in decline due to competition from the grey squirrel which was introduced into Co Longford in 1911.
The Minister said the grey squirrel is also causing very serious damage to a wide range of broadleaved trees, including native oak, by stripping off the bark in search of food.
In recent years the grey squirrel has driven most of the red squirrels out of the eastern part of the country. The greys have also crossed the Shannon which was thought to have been a protective barrier.
Red squirrels are still flourishing west of the Shannon, across most of Munster and south Leinster, and in patches of the Glens of Antrim, but there are big areas of overlap in the southern midlands and the Border counties.
In the centre of the island, extending eastwards from Longford, the woods are now largely empty of reds. Most of Britain, too, has lost its red squirrels in the spreading tide of greys. It is estimated there that there is only one red squirrel to every 60 greys. The new project will focus on a carefully selected area of private and State-owned forests in Kildare and Meath.
Different approaches to grey squirrel management will be tested as part of this project, and fully assessed in terms of associated cost/benefits.
The best success so far has been to use cage traps baited with maize. Once trapped, the reds can be released and greys killed humanely.