The Gruffalo Helps

As odd as the title sounds, the Gruffalo, the well known hairy beast from the minds of Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson, is helping red squirrels in the UK.
To be precise, drawings of the Gruffalo are being auctioned off on ebay to raise money for red squirrels. Signed original sketches of the famous monster, along with sketches of some of Axel's other characters, went on sale on 3rd December 2010. The auction runs for 10 days, so if you happen tyo see this before 12noon on Monday 13th December, get onto ebay and bid for one!

All funds raised will go directly to Save our Squirrels.
If you miss the auction, limited edition prints of the artwork will go on sale on ebay after Xmas 2010, so visit www.saveoursquirrels.org for the latest details as to when this will happen. There will be a direct link, as now, to the live auctions.

Also have a look out for Axel's newest book, How to Keep a Pet Squirrel. A truely charming book about how one should ensure a oet squirrel is kept happy - based on an entry in a children's encyclopedia dating from 1910.

The book is available on Amazon or through the SoS website. Money from the sale of this book also supports red squiggs, so get buying! :-)

Happy Christmas to you all!

Barbeque Baby!

Save Our Squirrels is hard at work organising its summer barbeque for 31st July. We are holding it near SOS territory, which will make storage and logistics SO much easier as we have a whole bunch of stuff which needs moving about!

The theme is Alien Invaders, to bring attention to the awesome destructive power of invasive non-native species like the eastern grey squirrel, which is doing so much damage to our beloved reds. But that's not all! There'll be representation from marine people, too! There are many invasive non-native species swimming about in our oceans, lakes and rivers which needs careful observation and sensitive control.

Our aims at this event are to raise awareness for types of invasive non-natives and to advise you about a sustainable and responsible way of cohabiting with your environment. Because it is your environment, which you hold in trust for everyone else and generations to come. It is your job, my job and the people you know's jobs to keep the biological balance even and be mindful enough of your surroundings to retain as much as you can of what makes Britain great. Events like the Alien Invaders BBQ are opportunities not to be missed, so back your car full of your friends and family and spend a sunny afternoon doing your part.

AND it'll be so much fun, you might explode. I know I'm excited. In fact, I'm not sure I want you to come now. More delicious foods for me!

New Blood!

I suppose I ought to introduce myself. I have recently started (week two! Woo!) as a Community Engagement Assistant at the northern office of Cumbria Wildlife Trust. Along with the existing team and another CEA, I will be promoting the SoS project in the Cumbria area. Suffice it to say that I am enjoying it enormously so far and it's a project which promises to challenge me in new ways for a worthy cause. I have chosen the soubriquet Squirrel Nutkin because a) it's squirrely, duh; and b) it's a mild homage to Beatrix Potter, something of a local icon.

A little bit about me. I am originally from Cumbria and therefore familiar with the local area and the culture of the county, allowing me to tailor my efforts to greatest effect, which helps, because that's my job! I am involved in volunteer work within the community, so working at Save Our Squirrels is a natural extension of my previous experience. If I can find a way to blend these together, all the better! I'm all about the synergy.

So, what am I doing here? I'm scheduled to stay here until November, by which time I hope to have made a significant impact on everyone out there. I will be working closely with SoS affiliates and Squirrelpaws to increase awareness for our organisation and, more importantly, our little furry friend, the red squirrel or sciurus vulgaris. I shan't spoil the surprise, but we have some interesting things planned in the coming months which you won't want to miss! I hope to have raised the profile of Save Our Squirrels significantly by the time I leave.

As I write this, we're just getting down to business. Squirrelpaws has left us CEAs to fend for ourselves for the afternoon while she does very important business in far away Geordie land.

Last week, beyond the admin involved with starting work somewhere new, we got to meet the team at the head office in their lovely building which makes us all very envious and also visit Whinlatter Forest Park west of Keswick. It was a new experience for me as I hadn't been there as an adult and it seemed much smaller than when I last went! (OK, I was about nine, but I don't see how that's relevant...) I'll be guiding visitors around a squirrel trail before long, so keep an eye out for a bemused person wandering around in an SoS t-shirt and try not to get eaten by any wildlife while on the walk because I don't know what to do if it happens and nobody will tell me...oh, and I saw a red squirrel, too, which made my day!

But anyway! That's me. More to come, no doubt, as time progresses. But for now, I'll wish you all a Squirrely week!

Saving Reds - The Next Phase

Hi again, its been a while since I last updated this because I wasn't quite sure what to put. The red squirrel conservation world has been in something of a limbo for several months now, while "The Future" is decided upon. The strategies, the people or organisation who should be involved, who are involved already, what roles they should or do play and of course how its going to get paid for is all up for discussion. Now being led by the government, Natural England and the Forestry Commission, there are many things I cannot say here and frankly I'm too far down the food chain to know all of the ins and outs anyway, but what I can say is that there is finally movement. This can only be a good thing as by hesitating, one often loses the game.

The last phase of squiggy conservation has been led by the Save our Squirrels Project - see earlier blog entry on what they do, but essentially they are made up of a partnership of lots of other organistaions including the Wildlife Trusts and NE/FC to deliver the stratgey that they all decided upon. SoS works with the volunteer groups and local communities to protect the red. In the next phase, which I'm told at this point will kick off in about September 2010 (watch the British press for media releases on this later in the year), there will be an even bigger project, predominantly aimed at culling the introduced grey squirrels (the indistputeable main reason for the reds decline), which will be led by the government i.e. their money mostly, but delivered in partnership by whoever wins the contract for the work. Watch this space.

So while things are definately on the move again, there are still many unknowns. What I do know, however, is that without ongoing financial support, in a big way, the work will not happen and Tufty will die. All the strategies and partnerships in the world cannot do anything without cash, so if you as an individual, or as a company want to help keep the work going, please donate or sponsor an element. Contact Save our Squirrels through their website www.saveoursquirrels.org
Thanks to Andrea and Keith Cameron for the picture of the squigs in their garden in Cumbria.