Snakes in the Heather

About Snakes in the Heather 

• To raise public awareness of the conservation needs of our reptile and heathland heritage, helping to promote better understanding that safeguards their future.
• To promote community relationships, personal well-being and life opportunities by providing chances for people to engage as project volunteers, allowing them to gain new skills and knowledge.

• To develop guidance and technical support to advance the conservation and ecological resilience of the smooth snake and other heathland reptiles.

Heathland Reptile Monitoring 

• 1 new survey system - the ARC Survey Hub, which includes a series of apps and resources to make reptiles surveys a simple process.
• 357 people trained in reptile survey techniques and to use the ARC Survey Hub. This includes 124 project partners and 257 volunteers.
• 1520 heathland reptile surveys have taken place during the project.
• Over 18000 records collected, including 1600 smooth snakes and 1500 adder.
• Smooth snakes found in 23 1km squares where there were no previous records or no records in over a decade.
• Data models of habitat suitability across south of England produced for the smooth snake, sand lizard and adder.

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Habitat Management 

• 66 habitat management task events taking place across the range of dry lowland heath.
• 6 habitat management tasks ran in partnership with Forestry England on important reptile habitat in the New Forest.
• 9 ‘Sunday Fundays’, a task day designed to include families with 100 new volunteers from ages 3 to 70 taking part! 
• An area of degraded heath adjacent to a ‘good condition’ heathland restored via contractor work, increasing the available range for reptiles at that site.
• Multiple heathland habitat managers have been sharing their knowledge with each other via workshops and networks supported or developed by the project.

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Conserving smooth snakes and other heathland reptiles: guidance for land-managers and ecologists

The purpose of the guidance is to enable people who look after heathland sites to consider the needs of smooth snakes and other reptiles during heathland management. This series of notes and resources has been adapted from training and workshop materials used during the Snakes in the Heather project. 

Read guidance

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Education and Events 

• The Snakes in the Heather project data models of habitat suitability across south of England developed for smooth snake, sand lizard and adder are used to inform conservation decisions including habitat restoration priority sites, ongoing habitat management and smooth snake relocation sites. 
• The ARC Survey Hub remains live. It is the home of the National Amphibian and Reptile Monitoring Programmes. 
• Trained Snakes in the Heather Reptile Surveyors continue to contribute reptile survey data which will be incorporated into the national programme.

• ARC continues to deliver volunteer Habitat Task days. Any ‘Task volunteers’ recruited during Snakes in the Heather are invited to join our regular tasks. Details can be found on the ARC events page. 
• Many of the networks established during SitH are maintained as part of wider conservation efforts. ARC’s training programme will endeavor to include workshops for heathland managers. 
• Smooth Snake Conservation Guidance will continue to be developed and updated as work progresses.

• Educational resources developed during the project, including activity sheets and education videos are available on ARC’s Education webpage and YouTube channel. 
• Educational networks developed to further reptile conservation remain active with support from ARC’s core staff and through educational projects and campaigns. 
• Lessons learned throughout the project are shared via ARC’s social media and other communications.

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