Grey squirrels are beginning to move into these areas. In contrast, there are believed to be some 2.5 million grey squirrels in Britain. Conservation Conservationists are trying to encourage commercial foresters and private landowners to maintain a mix of trees of different ages, containing plenty of Norway spruce and Scots pine which shed their seeds in late autumn. This would ensure that there would be a succession of mature trees producing plenty of seeds throughout the winter. It is advantageous to foresters and landowners to encourage red squirrels, as they do less damage to timber plantations than grey squirrels.
Red squirrels are far less rapacious and live at lower densities than grey squirrels.
The latter are more efficient at exploiting food sources, and their population density is usually between 2 and 8 per hectare, whereas the maximum population density of red squirrels is fewer than 1 per hectare. Arlunydd, Designed by Peter Moore.