The Forestry Commission and Defra have announced a more rigorous approach to controlling grey squirrels. Their review, undertaken at the behest of former Defra Secretary Owen Paterson, concludes that more could be done to address the threats posed by grey squirrels to woodlands and to red squirrels, which they infect with the deadly squirrel pox. It recommends a specific management prescription within countryside stewardship schemes, revision of the good-practice note on culling greys and research into new traps, chemical agents and the impact of predation by pine martens.
CLA president Henry Robinson backs this more robust approach, but reiterates a call for the relicensing of warfarin, ‘by far the most effective tool in controlling grey squirrels’.
Barn owls bounce back
The British Trust for Ornithology has reported a rise in barn owl nesting figures.
-
'Just look at those stairs. Just as an art form, they are bewitching, like the shell of a nautilus': The lure of buying a stairway to heavenIt seems like madness to buy a house purely because you fall in love with the staircase — but sometimes, they are simply so beautiful that it's impossible to resist. Toby Keel takes a look at some glorious examples of staircases we've seen in Country Life in the last couple of years.
-
'I found myself in a magical world of a sun-dappled forest, speckled with wild flowers of kaleidoscopic colours and brilliant mosses': Solo walking in the PyreneesThe Pyrenees reserves its best treasures for walkers prepared to venture off the well-beaten trail, says Teresa Levonian Cole, on a solo holiday in Ribes de Freser.
