Red squirrels remain in parts of Tyrone, Fermanagh and the wooded valleys of the Sperrins, which makes them a live consideration on woodland-edge and forestry-adjacent sites in exactly the area this practice covers.
Red squirrels are woodland specialists, strongly associated with conifer and mixed woodland, where they feed on seeds, cones, fungi and tree buds. In doing so they cache seed across the woodland floor and forget a good proportion of it, which makes them genuine agents of woodland regeneration.
Their decline is unusually well understood. The introduced grey squirrel outcompetes them for food and carries squirrelpox, a virus greys tolerate and reds generally do not. Woodland fragmentation compounds it, leaving isolated populations with no route to recolonise.
There is an encouraging twist. The recovery of the pine marten across parts of Ireland has been associated with grey squirrel decline and red squirrel recovery, apparently because greys are more vulnerable to marten predation than reds. It is a good reminder that restoring a functioning predator community can do work that no amount of direct intervention manages.
Red squirrels are protected under the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 as amended. It is an offence to kill, injure or take a red squirrel, or to damage or destroy a drey while it is in use.
Red squirrels are relevant where a proposal involves felling, thinning or working within or adjacent to established woodland, particularly conifer or mixed woodland in the western counties. Loss of connectivity between woodland blocks matters as much as the loss of trees themselves.
Survey work is a walkover looking for dreys, feeding remains and sightings, ideally at a time of year when the canopy is open enough to see. Mitigation usually centres on timing of felling, retaining drey trees, and maintaining canopy connections across a site.
Yes, in places. Populations persist in parts of Tyrone, Fermanagh and the Sperrins, though they are patchy and depend heavily on the woodland block they sit in.
A squirrel's nest — a ball of twigs and leaves built in the fork of a tree or against the trunk. Dreys are protected while in use.
It depends on the woodland, the location and the scale. Small-scale works in isolated garden trees rarely do; works within or beside an established woodland block in a red squirrel area often will.
A PEA is the standard first look at a development site: what habitats are present, what protected species could be there, and what further survey work — if any — the application will need.
Read about preliminary ecological appraisals →
Other species: Bats · Badgers · Otters · Nesting birds · Pine martens · Irish hare · Barn owls
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