Projects

A creative first year for Snakes in the Heather

By Ben Limburn - Citizen Science & Project Operations Officer & Owain Masters - Public Engagement & Education Officer

The ARC led Snakes in the Heather project is now in its second year, and what a first year it has been! If you aren’t aware of the project just yet, Snakes in the Heather, which began in August 2019, is a large-scale, partnership project to conserve Britain’s rarest reptile, the smooth snake, throughout its range in southern England.

The first few months of the project were very busy setting up systems to manage the project, communicating with project partners and beginning the education and events programmes. However, business as usual came to a halt in March of this year as the COVID 19 pandemic altered our ability to deliver the work as planned. With face-to-face training, meetings and outreach off the table we got creative!

“I have been working hard behind the scenes developing a new recording platform for wildlife surveys. We have been testing it this year and look forward to sharing it with survey volunteers in the coming years. I have also been working with key partners and volunteers, doing survey site set up and some socially distanced training for existing volunteers.” - Ben

“I have created lots of digital education content including worksheets, blogs and videos. I have also delivered lessons about reptiles to schools, university and community groups via Zoom and Microsoft Teams… platforms which many of you will be very familiar with after this year!” - Owain

We have led a number of events for small groups outside of the full lockdown periods which include some Dragon Finding Quests (guided walks!) and, most recently, our Halloween on the Heath events. The Halloween on the Heath events dispelled common myths about heathland wildlife including spiders, beetles, frogs, snakes and lizards. We have also been working with our fantastic volunteer and field teams in Dorset and the Weald to manage heathland habitat for the smooth snake. (These Habitat Task days have been carefully planned to ensure they are COVID safe).

Over the winter months, we will continue our behind the scenes work to create the resources necessary for delivery of the project over the coming years. We do not yet know how creative we will need to be in 2021 but will endeavour to keep both our survey and monitoring and outreach programmes running whilst being mindful or staff, volunteer and public safety. We will be updating our website and events pages regularly so please visit our project page to hear about progress and up-todate plans.

If you have any questions about the project or would like to book digital outreach please do not hesitate to email Ben or Owain on Smooth.Snakes@arc-trust.org or Education.Officer@arc-trust.org respectively.