Afforestation programme threatened by grey squirrel

CONSERVATIONISTS who have been hammering the Government’s forestry policies for not generating enough planting of broadleaf trees now have a new enemy — the 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.