‘Squirrel away cash for the reds’

THE Woodland Trust is appealing to the public to buy land in the Yorkshire Dales to help save the red squirrel.

The site near Hawes, where Wallace and Gromit’s favourite cheese Wensleydale, is made, costs £3.5million.

The trust has only until the end of June to raise the cash. It wants to plant trees and help woods naturally regenerate within a mosaic of habitats that will include meadows, grassland and peatland.

The project will protect and expand a nature reserve for rare red squirrels.

It is hoped otters and other struggling species will also make their homes there.

Trust spokesman Al Crosby said: “It is a great chance to boost biodiversity at a time when the natural world is in crisis.We can enhance the area by creating a unique woodland habitat.”