Squirrel damage

[Pattree]

However, the point of my original question is to see if anyone else has seen a reduction in damage this year.

During my days with the FC I’ve seen whole plantations seen off by rabbit and hare, especially broadleaf that wasn’t sufficiently fenced. I’ve never seen woodland areas cleared by squirrel. Individual trees certainly, occasionally adjacent trees but not areas.

My garden isn’t seeing as many squirrels as previous years but then this is the first year that we stopped bird feeding over the summer.

 

[Aristotle]

Wikipedia Grey Squirrel


Predicting the spread of the American grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in Europe: A call for a co-ordinated European: approachhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320708002723

 

[slowworm]

During my days with the FC I’ve seen whole plantations seen off by rabbit and hare, especially broadleaf that wasn’t sufficiently fenced. I’ve never seen woodland areas cleared by squirrel. Individual trees certainly, occasionally adjacent trees but not areas.

As you say, you can fence out rabbits and hares, and also deer and many other animals (maybe not sheep as they can teleport). But there's not much you can do to exclude squirrels.

I gather when much of my own wood was planted it was badly damaged by deer so it was fenced and replanted. Perhaps loosing a couple of years. Once the canopy of the wood closes up squirrels can ring bark and kill trees that are 20+ years old which is a much larger setback.

 

[Broch]

During my days with the FC I’ve seen whole plantations seen off by rabbit and hare, especially broadleaf that wasn’t sufficiently fenced. I’ve never seen woodland areas cleared by squirrel. Individual trees certainly, occasionally adjacent trees but not areas.

My garden isn’t seeing as many squirrels as previous years but then this is the first year that we stopped bird feeding over the summer.

Sadly, a number of new broadleaf plantations around here have been decimated by squirrel damage; they don't touch coniferous woodland. It's relatively easy to protect the base of the trees but impossible to protect higher up where the greys strip the bark.

The economic damage they cause to forestry is estimated at over £37 million per annum (UK Gov 2026).

 

[Broch]

There's an on-line Webinar covering grey squirrel damage on Tuesday by Dr Alexandra Ash, Behavioural Ecologist at Forest Research, from the Centre for Forest Protection (15th September 2026):

Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

events.teams.microsoft.com

 

[slowworm]

There's an on-line Webinar covering grey squirrel damage on Tuesday by Dr Alexandra Ash, Behavioural Ecologist at Forest Research, from the Centre for Forest Protection (15th September 2026):

I'll not be free but interested to hear any new thoughts on grey squirrels.

I like the name, Ash seems to be one of the least.favourite trees!