## North Tyne and Redesdale Red Squirrels
## **Trustees’ Annual Report 2021-22**
North Tyne and Redesdale Red Squirrels (NT&RRS) Charity Reg. 1186568 Address: 4 Low Park, West Woodburn, Hexham, Northumberland, NE48 2SQ
## **Trustees:**
Adrian Rawlins, 4 Low Park, West Woodburn, Hexham, Northumberland, NE48 2SQ Susan Underwood, 1 Hazel Cottages, Otterburn, Northumberland NE19 1LL Philip Chard, Snuggygate, Noble St., Bellingham, Northumberland, NE48 2EE
## **Structure and Management:**
The Group is administered by a Management Committee meeting regularly (nominally monthly). The committee includes the Trustees and any group member who may wish to attend. Decisions are by taken by vote, as laid down in the Constitution.
Trustee selection to fill a vacancy is by majority vote at an AGM. Group members may also be coopted on to the Committee for a short period.
## **Activities and Objectives:**
Following on from last year, Covid has been much less of a problem, due to a reduced number of cases and easy local access to vaccines.
Field work has continued, but personnel numbers are rather reduced. There’s no single reason for this: active membership has always featured a large proportion of retired people and hence vulnerable to changes in personal circumstances. Fortunately, grey activity has been low and reds have been healthy and thriving. This may have been helped by an ongoing increase in pine marten numbers as evidenced in camera sightings. The trail cameras on Otterburn Training Range have shown only red squirrels over the year. Greys have been seen in other areas, but the numbers have remained low. Also, thankfully no squirrel pox has been detected over the entire county.
Development work on the oral fertility control for grey squirrels has continued. This has included some refinement of the formulation to increase stability and immune response in an oral format. Since it’s effective on both species, red and grey, it requires a feed dispenser that excludes reds. Trials are currently under way on a prototype feeder that uses the substantial weight difference between the species (greys are almost double the weight of reds). This needs to be exhaustively tested in the wild over a year to determine the bait take up rate. Patterns of feed uptake from hoppers have been measured for individual grey squirrels in numerous woods. This work will combine with the laboratory work on the oral contraceptive to determine the effective bait dose required to induce infertility. The team will also look at bait consumption patterns of breeding versus non-breeding squirrels. It’s likely that research will need to be extended beyond January 2024 to incorporate next summer’s breeding season.
A second approach, at a much earlier stage of development, is a gene drive for greys that causes treated females to produce only female young for a certain number of breeding cycles. This has the advantages that it’s specie specific and only remains active for a set number of breeding cycles .
Analysis has shown that the use of such measures on a landscape scale, combined with conventional trapping, are essential if we are to reduce the current very serious rate of woodland loss.
## **Achievements and Service to the Public:**
We maintain open access to the public through published email and ‘phone links. This provides assistance with squirrel related concerns, such as disease, tree damage or recording sightings. This is an important function, since an alert and interested public can greatly increase the effectiveness and coverage of observation and also provide a reservoir of potential active group members.
**Financial Review:** A squirrel management contract for MOD at Otterburn Ranges was completed as planned and thus our expenses for this year are covered. The Group’s essential expenses cover insurance, feed, disinfectant, transport and equipment. Group activity is limited both by cash-flow and personnel numbers. Insurance is a particularly important item. We provide ‘game keeper’ level of cover to members involved in field work. Although there is a great appreciation of the importance of red squirrel survival in this area, the local population is sparse and of modest income. We therefore tend to rely more on contracts to cover costs rather than individual contributions. A small but worthwhile contribution came from plant sales by one of the Trustees.
_This document and the following Accounts have been read and agreed by the following Trustees as being an accurate and complete description of the Charity’s work over the year:_
_A.D. Rawlins S. Underwood P Chard_
_Dated 10[th] October 2023_
## **North Tyne and Redesdale Red Squirrels**
## **Year End**
|**Income**
R1 Membership
R2 Donations
R3 Sale of plants
R4 Grants
R5 Sale of feed
**Total**
**Expenditure**
P1 Stationery
P2 Website hosting
P3 Purchase of feed
P4 Equipment
P5 Purchase of sundries
P6 Room hire
P7 Publicity
P8 Cost of sales
P9 Insurance
**Total**|**31-Dec-22**
0.00
0.00
0.00
999.37
0.00
**999.37**
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-307.84
**-307.84**|
|---|---|
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Receipts & Payments Account for the Financial Year Ended 31-Dec-22
Year End
31-Dec-22 Last Year
Total Total
RECEIPTS £ £
Membership 0 0
Donations 0 20
Sale of plants 0 116
Sale of feeder / trap food 0 0
Grants 999 1,350
TOTAL RECEIPTS 999 1,486
PAYMENTS £ £
Stationery 0 0
Website hosting 0 0
Purchase of feeder / trap food 0 0
Purchase of sundries 0 -59
Purchase of Equipment 0 0
Room hire 0 0
Publicity 0 0
Travelling expenses 0 -15
Insurance -308 -303
TOTAL PAYMENTS -308 -376
NET RECEIPTS-PAYMENTS 692 1,110
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Movements in Funds for the Financial Year Ended 31-Dec-22
Bt'Fwd at Receipts Payments Transfers Cd'Fwd at
Cash Assets
31-Dec-2019 in Period in Period in Period 31-Dec-22
Cash at Bank & in Hand
Petty Cash 0 0 0 0 0
Bank, Current Account 3,079 999 -308 0 3,771
3,079 999 -308 0 3,771
Investment/Deposit Accounts Bt'Fwd Deposits Withdrawals Net Transfers Cd'Fwd
Bank, Deposit Account 0 0 0 0 0
Total Cash Assets 3,079 3,771
Total Funds 3,079 3,771
Statement of Assets & Liabilities as at 31-Dec-22 Assets as at 31-Dec-22
Unrestricted Designated Restricted Total at
Funds Funds Funds 31-Dec-22 Description Value
Cash Assets 3,771 3,771 Thermal Imager 1146
Other Monetary Assets 0 Microscope 163
Investments Assets None
Assets Retained for Own Use 1,309 1,309
Liabilities None Total 1309
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**Note: The value of assets retained is based on assets being written off over 1 years.**