With the exciting news of our trapping beginning, and the coronavirus restrictions easing, we’re looking forward to finally being able to have volunteers out with us again.

Restrictions mean that we still can’t offer lifts, which might restrict our options slightly as it may mean our survey locations can only be in walking distance from good parking, or along forest tracks which are in good enough condition for standard cars to drive along. As many of you will know, this is not something that is easy to predict as with felling across the region, previously solid tracks can quickly become mudbaths!

We will be starting trapping at our only site where we are still using feeders, thanks to dedicated volunteer effort. We know that this site still hasn’t seen pine martens, and is grey squirrel free. Because of this, we have continued to use baited feeders there and on many occasions we have been able to identify upwards of six individuals using the feeders. We will begin trapping there as we have high hopes for successful catches. Beyond that, we will be trapping in Clywedog, Cwm Berwyn, and above Strata Florida – more of our long-term sites where we regularly pick up red squirrels on camera traps. However, many more sites have potential, and we’re sure there are areas we can trap in the central Tywi (near Llyn Brianne) and over into the Irfon.

In order to do this, we will be planning several volunteer survey days over the summer to look for locations to trap. These days will likely consist of meeting in an area and walking through some coupes looking for squirrel chewed cones. We will go over all the training at the time, and group size will depend on the location and current restrictions.

When we are trapping, we might have some opportunities for volunteers to join us, though again this will depend on the sites, and priority will be given to volunteers who live locally and/or have been monitoring camera traps at those locations.

We will be contacting past volunteers shortly and will try and plan these survey days around when the most people can attend, including scheduling some on weekends. If you have not volunteered with us before and would like to join, please email me on and I’ll add you to the list.