Red squirrel reserve in Yorkshire Dales reopens after major Storm Arwen damage

The managed refuge zone at Snaizeholme in Wensleydale has a trail for visitors, a feeding station and viewing point.

A large number of trees were toppled during the storm and paths at the site near Hawes had to be closed for several weeks while debris was cleared and damage assessed.

The trails has now reopened, though a small section has been moved onto an adjoining footpath.

Red squirrels have survived in the area since a local farmer, the late Hugh Kemp, encouraged them at his Christmas tree plantation in the 1970s.

For the past 10 years the reserve, which has a “buffer zone” creating a refuge for the animals, has been managed by local landowners, who control the numbers of the larger non-native grey squirrels which push reds out in competition for food and territory, to allow their smaller relatives to thrive.

In the past two years, they have begun to spread from their coniferous habitat into local towns and villages, and have started to feed in gardens in Hawes, Bainbridge and Askrigg, though conservation officers have warned about the potential for dependency on this food source.

Snaizeholme is one of their only enclaves in Yorkshire, though there are also small populations on the National Park’s western borders with Cumbria.

The red squirrels’ main diet is pine cones, and they thrive in the long term only in areas with significant coniferous forest cover – meaning the destruction of a proportion of their habitat could have a serious effect on the population’s continued revival.