Coquetdale red squirrels again........ thank you for your votes.

Thanks to your support the Coquetdale Squirrel Group are through to the final of the Aviva Community Fund project funding. Now we have to provide additional information for the judges to supplement the project submission. they want to know more about the need for our project, how the money will be spent, how many people will be impacted both directly and indirectly and finally how long will the impact of the project be felt.

Thank you for your votes

The need is urgent, our surviving native red squirrels are in imminent danger of extinction here in the valley, we need to remove 60% of the adult eastern grey squirrels each year for at least the next five years. We have proposed much more intensive trapping to achieve this.

A  full-time skilled trapper is needed to train volunteers in order to increase their effectiveness and to do more trapping in problem areas so most of the money will be spent on wages and associated costs such as insurance and administration.

How many people will be impacted and be beneficiaries of the project...... well red squirrels are probably Britain's most iconic wildlife species you could call them " charismatic mini fauna" everyone loves them to watch them and know that they are here. The presence of our native reds has a positive effect on the quality of life of everyone in the valley, visitors to the Northumberland National Park and future generations.  How long will the impact last?  If we prevent extinction, eternally! ............. or am I over egging the pudding?