Hop off the Press

Do you love to listen to the happy croakings of the frogs in your pond, delight in the golden flash of a slow-worm disappearing in to your compost when you throw out your spud peelings or find yourself smiling when you lift a flower pot and find the bright coppery eyes of a toad looking up at you? We'd like to know how many people are lucky enough to see frogs, toads, newts, lizards or snakes in their gardens and how many gardens have habitat features that help amphibians and reptiles thrive.

Many of us are concerned at the rate at which our amphibians and reptiles are declining and our gardens are playing an increasingly more important role in their survival. By taking part in our Garden Dragon Watch, you not only get to connect with nature on your doorstep, your observations will be used to improve understanding of which reptiles and amphibians live in gardens and what garden features they like best in order to help us to protect them.

Find out more at

https://www.arc-trust.org/garden-dragon-watch

ARC’s Bitesize herpetology courses

By John Wilkinson - Regional, Training & Science Programmes Manager

In the light of government advice on coronavirus (COVID-19), we have had to cancel most of our upcoming training courses to maintain social distancing. As we are currently unable to carry out face-to-face training our expert staff have created a new series of free, introductory training modules for anyone with an interest in amphibians and reptiles. It’s a great way to increase your knowledge of herpetology, at a pace and time that suits you.

We have beginner levels which cover amphibian and reptile identification, improver levels focusing on individual species, assessments and quizzes which we will continue to add to over the coming weeks. Something for everyone to enjoy whilst we are all spending much more time at home.

Check it out at

https://www.arctrust.org/training

Good luck and above all else have fun! The UK has welcomed its first ever ‘super’ National Nature Reserve (NNR) connecting 3,331 hectares or 8,231 acres, of 11 types of priority habitat across the Purbeck heaths of Dorset.

ARC’s Norden reserve is part of the new NNR

By working together and combining land, expertise and a common vision, the National Trust, Natural England, RSPB, Forestry England, the Rempstone Estate, Dorset Wildlife Trust and ARC, along with other landowners and managers, have taken important strides forward in landscape–scale conservation and nature recovery to benefit rare and varied wildlife such as the Sand lizard, Dartford warbler and the Silver studded blue butterfly. The new NNR will give many different species of flora and fauna a better chance of adapting and thriving in light of the current climate crisis.

“The new NNR provides a unique opportunity to nurture a landscape level partnership which will safeguard this internationally threatened habitat and its diversity of species. We look forward to working in close collaboration to ensure we are better equipped to take on the challenges facing our environment;” said Tony Gent, ARC CEO.

ARC feature in Parliamentary Review

By Anju Sarpal - Communications & Outreach Manager

ARC meets the challenge of influencing policy and legislation in a number ofimaginative ways. Our specialist staff provide expert advice and guidance to policy-makers; we contribute to the governmental biodiversity strategies in England, Wales and Scotland, and provide advocacy to promote biodiversity benefits as new legislation and policy are developed.

To conserve species ARC’s aim is to educate and inform; thus we run national monitoring programmes, involving professionals and citizen scientists, and apply new and innovative ways of studying them –including the use of environmental DNA, remote sensing imagery and computer modelling. These provide valuable data that we feed to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. (DEFRA) For this reason ARC’s work features in this year’s Westminster publication, The Parliamentary Review, which sharesbest practice amongst UKMP’s and business leaders.

Thanks to the generosity of donors, we have successfully reached our target of £200,000 allowing us to buy 50 acres (c.20 hectares) of heathland at Blackmoor near Borden in Hampshire following a year-long fundraising appeal. The site at Blackmoor is part of Woolmer Forest Site of Special Scientific Interest, which is one of the most important areas of heathland in the Weald of southern England. It is unique in Britain, and of special significance to ARC, in that it supports 12 of the UK’s species of reptile and amphibian including the rare smooth snake, sand lizard and natterjack toad. These UK native species have suffered population decline due to habitat loss or fragmentation –hence the importance of safeguarding key locations.

ARC has managed this area as part of a larger parcel of privately-owned land at Blackmoor extending over 41 hectares, since 2010, in addition to managing over 200 hectares of Woolmer Forest which is in Ministry of Defence ownership.

Over the last ten years ARC has restored around 24 hectares of lowland heathland on Blackmoor from pine and birch scrub woodland of limited value to the special wildlife of the SSSI. Additionally, three ponds have been restored by having accumulated sediment scraped out. These should also benefit the critically endangered Spangled Water Beetle (Graphoderus zonatus), a species whose only known site in Britain is in Woolmer Forest, along with other heathland pond species and the amphibian species that are present. It is hoped that one day natterjack toads will return to Blackmoor from the adjacent Woolmer MoD area where they still survive.

In addition to the many generous individuals giving their support, ARC would like to thank the following charitable trusts for their donations: The Banister Charitable Trust, Marjorie Coote Animal Charity Trust, The Marsh Christian Trust, The William Dean Countryside and Educational Trust, and The William Haddon Charitable Trust. The purchase was also supported by The British Herpetological Society and the South Downs National Park Authority. On the very last day of May, a major heath fire tore through over 100 hecatres of Thursley Common National Nature Reserve in Surrey. Whist this site is not managed directly by ARC, we have worked closely with Natural England to reintroduce both sand lizards and smooth snakes on the site in the past. We also carry out joint volunteer habitat management tasks on these areas which thankfully escaped the burn. The fire lasted several days, affecting a wet heath area of the site, where grass snakes, common lizards and palmate newts are known to habituate, causing considerable damage to all wildlife populations present. The cause of this fire is unknown but as ever, disposable barbecues and discarded rubbish are suspected.

Our Surrey Field Team have been coordinating the rescue efforts in the aftermath, laying out refugia for animals to hide under and carrying out rescue sweeps of the burnt area to translocate any survivors found to safety in the nearest area of intact habitat. It is hoped that over time, when the area starts to recover, the relocated animals will repopulate the burn site. At the time of writing, four rescue sweeps have resulted in total of 56 common lizards, 11 newts, 10 slow-worms, 6 adders, 5 grass snakes and even 7 sand lizards (who have therefore spread further from the original release site than had previously been realised).

Also in May, following a very hot, dry and windy month, a huge fire raged through Wareham Forest in Dorset. Due to prevailing weather conditions, the fire burned for more than 2 weeks destroying 220 hectares and reignited a number of times. Sadly, it looks like disposable barbeques may have been the cause.

ARC’s Reserves Manager Gary Powell and Reptile Conservation Officer Nick Moulton, in conjunction with site owners Forestry England, led the rescue efforts. It was a complicated task to coordinate with such a huge area to cover, skeleton rescue crews with social distancing in place (and for safety purposes), a heat wave and an active fire site to contend with. Some days the site was too dangerous to attempt a rescue or it was just too hot for any reptile or amphibian activity.

At the last official count from the official rescue groups that ARC coordinated, 190 lizards, 50 of which were sand lizards, 9 slow-worms, 4 smooth snakes, 3 adders, 1 grass snake, 4 common toads and one palmate newt were rescued and relocated.

This is yet another stark reminder of the ever present threat of heath fires during the summer months. Please spread the word about the risks of lighting fires near wild open spaces and if you do see any signs of heath fires call 999 immediately.