New UK Squirrel Accord website launch & photography competition
Welcome to the new and refreshed website for the UK Squirrel Accord (UKSA) partnership.
Please find useful information on red and grey squirrels, their conservation and management, tree health, the fertility control research, and more. We aim for this to be a hub to share knowledge and best practice from across difference sectors, organisations and individuals involved in delivering the aims of UKSA.
UKSA works collaboratively to preserve the UK’s wooded landscapes and associated biodiversity under the following aims to:
- Secure and expand UK red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris, populations beyond current thresholds.
- Ensure UK woodlands flourish and deliver multiple benefits for future generations of wildlife and people.
New features
Along with pages of content on various relevant subjects, we have new facilities to help raise awareness that we hope you will find useful:
- Blog: our new blog enables signatories and stakeholders to share their knowledge and expertise on matters relating to UKSA and its aims.
- Image gallery: organisations and individuals have provided royalty-free images that are available for media use. Credit the relevant photographer or organisation whenever they are used.
- Resources library: a collection of UKSA documents and links to external resources relevant to our aims. These include UKSA newsletters, position statements, best practice guides, action plans, strategies and research.
- Donate: we are still fundraising to complete the grey squirrel fertility control research and are coming to the end of the second of the five-year research project - update available soon. We still need to raise £250,000 to complete the project and have created a donate page with PayPal and other options if you can help us reach our target.
Photography competition
To celebrate the launch of the new website and add images to our gallery, we are running a photography competition to win a selection of goodies donated by various signatories and stakeholders. Can you help us fill our image gallery? Deadline for entries is midnight on 04 October – the week after Red Squirrel Awareness Week. Please send to info@squirrelaccord.uk via email or WeTransfer.
To help us create this useful and educational resource we are looking for images of healthy and infected red squirrels, conservation tools (e.g. feeders, nest boxes, etc.), grey squirrels, bark stripping damage, healthy trees, and people in action (e.g. volunteers carrying out monitoring and land managers carrying out conservation or forestry operations).
Please only submit images you are happy to appear in our image gallery, which is a resource for royalty-free images available for media use. Your work will be credited with your name and our terms of use require anyone using it to credit it appropriately.
Keep in touch
If you would like to contribute any images or see any resources added to the library, are interested in writing a blog, getting involved with fundraising for the fertility control research, receiving our newsletter or being added to our email interest group please contact us at: info@squirrelaccord.uk
Kay Haw, UK Squirrel Accord Director. Previously, Woodland Trust Conservation Adviser (started the Wood Wise publication and worked on invasive non-native species issues), Wildlife and Countryside Link Invasive Non-Native Species Working Group Chair, and EU Invasive Alien Species Working Group member.