| Foresty Commission programme manager: | Sallie Bailey |
| Research contact and location: | Jonathan Humphrey Ecology Division Forest Research |
This is a diverse programme focussed on planted forest habitats with the overall aim of providing guidance on the management of forest habitats at the stand or habitat scale. The approach is to identify management practices that will promote biodiversity. Practices will be based on the manipulation of natural processes and targeted towards specific ecosystem components where most benefits are likely to be gained. The priority themes selected are 'managing open habitats' and 'managing forest stands to develop mature habitat', including 'old growth' conditions.
The programme has links to several others including: Landscape ecology, Species action plans, Biodiversity evaluation, Decision support for biodiversity, and Impacts of herbivores.
Commissioned reports
Date: 2007
Title: Assessing the risk of encroachment of grey squirrels into red squirrel forest reserves
Author: Peter Lurz, John Gurnell and Steve Rushton
Full report: PDF
Summary:
UK red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) has disappeared from much of mainland Britain with its geographical range now restricted mainly to the north of England and Scotland and parts of Wales (Gurnell & Pepper, 1993). The decline of the red squirrel has been attributed to competition from introduced North American grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) that have replaced red squirrels throughout much of their range. However, more recently a lethal epidemic disease has been identified as a contributing factor. The disease results from infection of red squirrels by a squirrelpox virus (SQPV) that is carried by grey squirrels. The transmission of the virus is a function of encounter rates within and between red and grey squirrels, but we do not know how the virus is transmitted from one individual to another or if the production and deployment of a vaccine is possible. Thus, there is an urgent need for well-targeted grey squirrel control to minimise spread and incursion of grey squirrels into designated red squirrel reserves in the North of England to reduce the risk of virus transmission
