Live-trapped grey squirrel
At Bron haul we are nearing the season in which to control the grey squirrel population, though we have had an early start because of the British Red Squirrel LANTRA course that David has begun to provide.
On the course we went through different control methods and legislation, going over spring traps, live traps and shooting as well as reinforcing species identification and the objectives of squirrel management.
We then had the chance to apply the knowledge and got to see how squirrels are managed at Bron Haul. We use live traps and I had helped bait the traps and prime them prior to the course but this was my first chance to actually work with the traps in action.
David walked us through the process and each student had a chance to get confident in executing a humane dispatch from a live catch trap.
While walking we had the chance to go over many talking points about the management and got to gain an insight from David’s experience.
After the course I even had the opportunity to dress and cook the squirrels we had gathered. We stopped trapping after a few days as we had only hoped to be able to do the course but we’re beginning again for real very soon!
Contact us about grey squirrel control training. David will be running a course on behalf of the Royal Forestry Society at Harewood Estate on Sunday 29th May and a practical course at Bron Haul on behalf of the Woodland Skills Centre on Saturday 23rd April.
Bespoke courses can be arranged on request.