A Cumbrian red squirrel group has been given a £1,000 boost.
Solway Red Squirrel Group received the funding from Spar’s Community Cashback initiative.
The voluntary group was set up in 2012 to protect local endangered red squirrels from extinction and its work feeds into overarching conservation work carried out by Red Squirrels Northern England.
The group’s ambition is to preserve the status of the red squirrel for the benefit of local communities and future generations.
Martyn Richardson, managing director of M&L Richardson & Sons Ltd, has 11 Spar stores across Cumbria and Northumberland, met members of the Solway Red Squirrel Group outside his Spar store at Cardewlees, near Carlisle.
Stephen Kirk, of Solway Red Squirrel Group, said: “The Spar Community Cashback grant will help enormously to sustain our conservation efforts which are currently based around protecting an established red squirrel stronghold.
“This is in the hope this will allow population numbers to build further and, in time, gradually disperse to other areas.
“Our volunteers are engaged in a year-round programme of woodland surveys, camera monitoring, supplementary feeding, recorded sightings and grey squirrel control, alongside various public engagement events to promote our conservation message.
“The funding from Spar specifically will help provide feeding boxes, supplies of feed, and some better quality, more expensive trail cameras and batteries that can monitor red squirrel activity and populations remotely, enabling volunteers to be more hands on with other group tasks.”
Spar Community Cashback, now in its fourth year, received 1,400 applications from charities and organisations across the North.
Martyn said: “It was a pleasure to hand over the cheque to the Solway Red Squirrel Group who are a lovely organisation and are committed to preserving one of the North of England’s best-known species.
“As a retailer whose stores are across the red squirrel’s last remaining strongholds in England – Cumbria and Northumberland – I was interested to learn more about the work the group do and give something back to the community to support this extremely worthwhile effort.”
