ALL right – I admit it. I was wrong over the grey squirrel. And the red, too, honesty compels me to say.

For the past two weeks I have presented the two squirrels virtually as adversaries. My sympathies have been with the grey, the American import, widely branded a “tree rat” and the chief nemesis of our native red.

Last week, making the point that the reds share some of the greys’ less attractive habits, like nest robbing and stealing from bird tables, I introduced my piece as kind of a contest: the grey squirrel vs the red squirrel.

But – and here’s my admission – this is completely the wrong way of looking at this vexed issue.

The grey squirrel is no longer accused of ousting the red by literally killing it. (But it is worth remembering how long, and how deeply, this falacious belief was held.) The grey succeeds because it has a wider diet and can live in semi-urban habitats.

The answer to the perceived conflicts between the two squirrel species lies in careful woodland management.

A model exists in Cumbria’s Whinfell Forest, a haven for reds because of its abundant pines and scarcity of broad-leaved trees.

As Professor David Bellamy recently commented: “The red seems to win out over the grey in places like this.”

Any relatively isolated wood of decent size offers potential for remodelling in favour of the red squirrel.

But there is no way the reds will ever colonise the skimpy woods or suburban parks, where the grey squirrel happily thrives. Eliminating the grey would therefore mean an absence of squirrels from where most people can see and enjoy them.

Until the grey squirrel arrived we had only one species of squirrel. Urbanisation had already sent it into retreat.

We should be pleased that we now have two attractive kinds of squirrel – one shy and retiring, the other highly-companionable and ready to share our company. The trick is to organise our environment to support both.

SADLY, a seemingly unrelated matter makes the above outcome less likely. The Government’s intended sell-off of the nation’s forests will mean the end of the Forestry Commission, the body best-placed to aid the red squirrel. Nothing has been learned from the short-sighted sell-off of former railway lines. All these should have been retained as public walkways and cycle routes. Think of the value walkers and cyclists would now place on the magnificent Stainmore line, to the Lake District from Darlington.

The popularity of far less scenic routes that have become walkways, such as the Castle Eden line, shows the potential for public recreation.

A great opportunity wasted – like hundreds elsewhere. I’m no lover of commercial forests. But millions enjoy them, and they support much wildlife.

Only a barbarous Government would squander this priceless asset.

MY village was recently without a phone service for nearly four days because thieves had stolen 400 metres of phone cable.

On Radio 4, I heard a programme about a Mexican dictator, Porfirio Diaz, who introduced summary execution for anyone who cut electricity wires. Yes, I thought, that’s the way to deter these blighters.