Red Squirrels Northern England
Red Squirrels Northern England (RSNE) is a red squirrel conservation partnership working across Northern England.
About Us
Red Squirrels Northern England is the lead organisation striving to conserve reds, working in seven counties, where wild living red squirrels still exist; Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham, North Yorkshire, Lancashire & Merseyside.
The project is managed by Northumberland Wildlife Trust, in partnership with other northern Wildlife Trusts, Forestry England, Natural England and Red Squirrel Survival Trust. The partners work hand-in-hand with local communities and hundreds of passionate volunteers, with a core aim to secure the future of this most cherished British mammal.
We protect red squirrels in the following ways:
- Helping people understand why reds are under threat and why action is needed
- Working with communities and volunteer red squirrel groups to encourage local support and involvement
- Monitoring woodlands to better understand where reds live so we can take action to conserve them
- Managing grey squirrels in areas where reds are found in order to allow reds the space they need to thrive
- Developing and nurturing partnerships to ensure there is a joined up approach to this work
Three Ways You Can Help
- Submit a squirrel sighting - sightings are crucial to track the fortunes of red squirrels
- Join your local Red Squirrel Group - meet like-minded advocates of red squirrels
- Donate to the red squirrel project here
Learn more about RSNE, including how you can get involved, via their website www.rsne.org.uk
You can also follow our progress on Facebook and Twitter or sign-up to receive the quarterly newsletter here. Read the latest Red Report here.
Image by: Tim Mason.
Celebrate Red Squirrel Awareness Week (20th to 26th September 2021)
Join RSNE’s Friends of the Red Squirrel membership programme to help us protect this charming and endangered species during the week and receive a delightful origami red squirrel as an extra incentive. You'll also 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. Membership starts from less than £2 per month.
Red Squirrel Awareness Week Offer - Terms and Conditions
- Free origami red squirrel with every new membership during Red Squirrel Awareness Week.
- Anyone joining will also be entered into a prize draw – £50 Big Wild Thought voucher first prize, £25 Big Wild Thought vouchers second and third prizes, The Squirrel Book by Fiona Lunn fourth prize. Prizes cannot be exchanged.
- Open to new members of Friends of the Red Squirrel only.
- The offer is available for all membership types.
- Available online only.
- Offer applies from 20th September until midnight on 26th September.
- Cannot be used with any other offers.
- Prize draw will take place w/c 04/10/2021 and winners will be notified by email during that week.
After collating and preparing around 19,000 records, thanks to the Northern Red Squirrels community volunteer groups, we put together a summary of the year’s grey squirrel management efforts/results. Of the total grey squirrels managed, >80% was due to local volunteer group effort. RSNE contributed 13% in Cumbria and 27% in Northumberland (or 16% of the combined area) - principally around strongholds and filling in the gaps.
RSNE’s Annual Squirrel Monitoring Programme
We established the annual squirrel monitoring programme in 2012. Standardised monitoring is undertaken in 300 woodlands and gardens each year during a three month period in spring from 1st March to 31st May across known red squirrel range in northern England. The aim of the programme is to build a long-term dataset that will evidence changes that may occur to red and grey squirrel range over time in areas where red squirrel conservation activity takes place. View the latest report here.
2019 annual monitoring results; the 8th round of monitoring conducted with the help of over 170 people, 86% of which were volunteers.
Red squirrel distribution between 2019-2020 (data thanks to local volunteer groups, landowners and RSNE rangers).