Conservation group Red Squirrels Northern England (RSNE), which works in collaboration with local community volunteer groups and various organisations to protect red squirrels in the region and further afield, is getting ready to celebrate Red Squirrel Awareness Week this September.
Organised by the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, Red Squirrel Awareness Week is an annual seven-day campaign to raise awareness of the reds squirrel’s plight and encourage support for the effort to protect them.
From 20th - 26th September, anybody joining RSNE’s Friends of the Red Squirrel membership scheme, which helps us protect this charming, charismatic and endangered species, will receive a free gift in their membership pack.
In addition, all new members that join during Red Squirrel Awareness Week will be entered into a prize draw with the chance to win either a gift voucher to spend on red squirrel clothing available via online company Big Wild Thought, or a copy of Fiona Lunn’s book The Squirrel, about a red squirrel called Red, his friends Whiskers and Her Ladyship and their life in the pine forest. More details are available on our website here.
Red Squirrels continue to be endangered, with numbers standing nationally at approximately 290,000 across the whole of the UK (only 29,500 in England), down from an all-time high of 3.5 million.
Speaking about Red Squirrel Awareness Week in this region, Heinz Traut, RSNE Project Manager said: “After lockdown there is a growing feeling of the essential importance of green spaces and nature to our wellbeing as a nation and the need to protect what lives in it.
“To survive, red squirrels need support from local communities and the general public which is why our membership scheme is such a vital funder of our work, together with our rangers and volunteers who work tirelessly to safeguard these charming and charismatic animals for future generations to marvel at.”
For more information on the work of RSNE visit: www.rsne.org.uk
