FAQ: What happens at the end of the project?
At the end of the three-year project, we will evaluate how successful our grey squirrel control efforts have been in halting the spread of grey squirrels and allowing the recolonisation of red squirrels. Where we can show success, we hope to secure funding to continue the work, with the aim of putting in place the minimum amount of funded grey squirrel control possible to maintain current red squirrel populations north of the Central Belt at a level that is financially sustainable for the medium to long term, until a pharmacological solution to grey squirrel control is developed.
At the same time it will be necessary to sustain grey squirrel control to contain the spread of squirrelpox virus in south Scotland until a vaccine deliverable to wild squirrel populations can be developed.
