Afforestation programme threatened by grey squirrel
“Introduced into Ireland in 1911, the pest, frequently and rightly referred to as the wood rat, now represents a major threat to the government’s plans to increase the proportion of broadleaves in the afforestation programme”, says Dr Michael Carey, a forestry and management consultant, in a article in the newsletter of COFORD, the National Council for Forest Research and Development.
He says the grey squirrel has displaced Ireland’s native red squirrel, and now causes serious damage to sycamore, beech and oak, in particular in forest areas east of the Shannon. “Many plantations are so badly damaged as to place a serious question mark over their future.
“The implications are serious for woodland owners and others who have invested in broadleaf plantations”, warns Dr Carey, who is the Chairman of the British and Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme (BIHIP) Sycamore Group.
“The pest is also known to cause serious damage to woodland biodiversity through preying on a wide range of birds’ nests both on the ground and in the tree canopy. In a nutshell, it undermines the whole concept of sustainable forest management”, he warns.
When the European Squirrel Initiative (ESI) originated in London in 2002 at a meeting to discuss the havoc being caused by the grey squirrel in Britain, the foresters, conservationists and landowners who attended concluded that there was only one way to protect woodland and its wildlife: the total removal of the animal.
Control methods developed over the last 50 years had failed to prevent the spread of the pest and are seriously limited in their potential to reduce damage to a tolerable level.
Now renamed the European Squirrel Initiative, the group has agreed that there is an urgent need to raise public awareness in relation to the threat presented by the pest, before commencing any extensive eradication programmes.
Dr Carey says, “It is time that Ireland played its role in removing this pest from our midst.
“It is naïve, to say the least, for the country to continue to attempt to increase its level of broadleaf woodland without dealing effectively with the grey squirrel.
“We are dealing with what is essentially a rat epidemic in many of our woodlands which is causing havoc and spreading by the day. A serious debate and a well thought-out action plan is required.”
Dr Carey can be contacted at careyml@eircom.net by email
