Major projects to promote rare and endangered species such as red squirrels, sea eagles and beavers are being threatened by deep spending cuts imposed on Scotland's main nature conservation agency.Senior executives in Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) are discussing proposals to heavily cut or even abandon some projects after Scottish ministers warned that its budget would be cut by at least 20% over several years in favor of other policy priorities.
The cuts, which led to a 10% budget cut this year alone, could also have a significant impact on 
programs to combat highly damaging invasive species such as signal crayfish, American mink, rhododendron (right) and Japanese knotweed.
One source said the scale of the spending cuts was deeply worrying for the agency. "If we cut back now we're genuinely not investing in the future. That would have a major negative impact on the future," he said.
Until now, SNH and other environment agencies have been largely protected from the swinging 
cuts imposed on Natural England and other English agencies by the UK government during the recession.
The Scottish National party government under Alex Salmond had pledged to protect Scotland's natural heritage, but John Swinney, the Scottish finance secretary, is now diverting money into other front-line services.
SNH expects to get its actual budget for next year in January but is braced for cuts of up to 10%, losing a further £6m in funding.
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The agency fears Scotland could fail to meet its legal obligations on the environment, leading it to face court proceedings from the European commission for breaching habitat and wildlife directives.
Many final decisions on which programs will be worst hit, including the major program to protect the UK's last significant red squirrel population from a critical decline, have yet to be made. All the species affected are on SNH's species action framework of the 22 most significant and threatened animals, plants and invertebrates in Scotland.
But officials at SNH have secured two of the most crucial projects: to protect freshwater pearl mussels and an exhaustive study at Langholm in the Borders into hen harriers (left, courtesy BBC) and grouse moors.
It is understood the SNH has now decided not to fund any future 
expansion of the program to reintroduce sea eagles (right) across Scotland, once the current five-year project in eastern Scotland ends. The current project to release the birds on the east coast will now get only one year's extra funding, the agency confirmed.
Plans to find another site to release European beavers (left) in Scotland once the current five-year project at Knapdale in Argyll is complete – a much less remote site at Insh Marshes in the Cairngorm National Park has been identified – are also vulnerable to being shelved.
The program to combat the spread of signal crayfish, which cause 
significant damage to rivers, is "up for grabs", while cutting off funding to clear rhododendron and knotweed (right) choking some islands and Highland areas could mean "in the longer term we're going to lose scores of native plants", the source said.
SNH is also reviewing its funding for the major multi-agency project to protect the UK's last major strongholds of the red squirrel in southern Scotland and the Highlands, by intensively culling grey squirrels, which carry a pox fatal to reds and out-compete 
their smaller cousins for food.
Funding for Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels ends in April 2012. An SNH spokesman confirmed the agency was deliberating the issue: "We are currently considering how best to support red squirrel conservation in future." He added that funding for mink eradication, a project which has now spread across western Scotland and the Hebrides, was secure only until March 2013.
He confirmed its budgets were under severe pressure. "Operating with a reduced budget will of course affect the amount we can do as an organization," the spokesman said. "Like other public bodies we will need to focus on the highest priorities, where we can make the most positive difference and where we can deliver the most public benefits."
Jonny Hughes, head of policy at the Scottish Wildlife Trust, which plays a lead role in the beaver and red squirrel projects, said it would be potentially disastrous if funding for the red squirrel project were cut heavily and it needed proper funding to ensure recent gains were not lost entirely.
"We want to support SNH in making these difficult choices: if there's less money around, we 
want to put them into critical priorities," Hughes said.
Those included the beaver and red squirrels projects. Recent opinion polls had shown that red squirrels were now seen as a particularly iconic Scottish species, as they are largely extinct in England.
"In terms of Scotland's reputation, in terms of safeguarding its natural environment, it's crucial," Hughes said. "Both of them, in the context of the UK, Europe and globally, to give up a high profile species conservation program like red squirrels would be silly both in conservation terms and reputation terms."
Endangered and invasive species
Red squirrel
One of the most iconic and threatened British mammals, the red squirrel, is under intense pressure from grey squirrels (left), which carry a fatal disease, and habitat loss. Scotland is now home to at least 75% of the UK's 160,000 surviving reds; a major project to kill grey squirrels in the Borders and Highlands is regarded as essential to protect them. The grey squirrel is having such a profound impact on British wildlife that the IUCN have 
now listed it on their list of the 100 worst invasive species globally and several other conservation groups are calling for radical steps to be taken to prevent irreversible damage being done. (At right: distribution map of grey and red squirrels in UK).
Beaver
Hunted to extinction in the UK more than 300 years ago, three families of European beaver are living in the wild in Knapdale, Argyll, in the first official project of several being planned across the UK. The European beaver inhabits riparian broadleaved woodland bordering freshwater 
standing waters or slow-moving streams. It occurs from western Europe eastwards to the Chinese-Mongolian border region. The total world population is 634,000-732,000 animals but this is heavily weighted towards eastern Europe. A wetlands reserve in the Cairngorms (left) was earmarked for the next Scottish scheme; government funding for that is now in severe doubt.
Signal crayfish 
The North American signal crayfish, (right) introduced to the UK, is regarded as one of the most destructive "alien" species. First spotted in Scotland in 1995, it has a "significant adverse impact" on rivers and native species by burrowing into banks, destroying river plants and eating native fish and invertebrates. They were first formally recorded in Scotland during 1995 and have since been recorded in 15 sites. These range from Galloway in the south to Inverness-shire in the north.
Rhododendron
Once a much admired ornamental plant for Highland estates, rhododendron have spread aggressively on many Hebridean islands and west coast areas, chocking out native plants and dominating woodland. Introduced from Spain 250 years ago, the plant has proven very expensive and hard to remove: it can regrow from suckers, seeds or root fragments.
Sea eagles
Hunted to extinction in Britain by the early 20th century and also known as white-tailed eagles, a major sea eagle (right) reintroduction program in Scotland has been extremely successful: after first 
being released on Rum in the inner Hebrides in 1975, there are now an estimated 57 breeding pairs across Scotland. The UK distribution is currently confined to the west coast of Scotland where it was reintroduced over a period of years, from 1975 to 1998. Most of Scotland's white-tailed eagle population is now found on Mull, Skye, Small Isles and the Outer Hebrides. It continues to spread its range with some pairs on the West Highland mainland coast and expansion more widely in the Inner Hebrides.
Source:
The Guardian, , "Spending cuts threaten Scotland's endangered species", by Severin Carrell, accessed January 2, 2012
Conservation Issues, "The Grey Squirrel in Britain", accessed January 2, 2012
