Conferences and Events

Everyone is welcome and the price is £5 for members of both the Bangor University Herpetological Society and the British Herpetological Society and £10 for non-members.

Booking is essential however the fee is payable on the door and a valid membership card must be displayed

for the reduced rate. To book and for information regarding a limited availability evening meal please

contact 
bangorherpsoc@googlemail.com

SOUTH WEST REGION AMPHIBIAN AND REPTILE GROUPS’ CONFERENCE
Saturday 10th December 2011
Coaver Club, County Hall, Matford Lane, Exeter, Devon County Council, EX2 4PS
Final Conference Programme

Programme

Adders in crisis

Monday 21 November 2011

Issued by: Kent Reptile and Amphibian Group

For immediate release

Experts have declared that Britain’s only venomous snake, the adder, is in urgent need of conservation action. With adder numbers declining in many areas, conservationists paint a bleak picture for its future unless help is forthcoming.

South East & London ARG UK
Regional Meeting 2011

The Ward Room, Medway Campus, University of Greenwich, Chatham 19th November

The final programme of the South East & London Regional Meeting of the ARG UK

• Gail Austen-Price (KRAG) – Setting the scene
• Rick Hodges (KRAG) – Adder impacts – observations on the management of chalk downland in Kent
• Andrea Griffiths (Medway Valley Countryside Partnership) – Adders on the Downs
• Steve Songhurst (KRAG) – Problem solving
• Richard Griffiths (DICE) – Adders, absent or undetected
• Mike Phillips (KRAG) – What happens to the data?
• Steve Langham (Surrey ARG) - Conservation of the adder - The big picture

• James Stroud (University of Hull) – Conservation management in plantation woodlands
• John Baker (Suffolk ARG) – Make the Adder Count
• Nigel Hand (Herefordshire ART) – Adder telemetry, What's that Snake & DNA collection

& from Europe

• John Holliday (Conservatoire d'Espaces Naturels) – The adder in Nord et du Pas de Calais, France
• Sylvain Ursenbacher (University of Basel) – Comparing the genetic structure of adder populations in France, Belgium and Switzerland

Due to the increasing popularity of this annual event, we are delighted to announce that the Herpetofauna Workers’ Meeting 2012 will be held at the Telford International Centre (T.I.C.), Shropshire. This venue is just three hours travel from the majority of the UK population so we are hoping that it will provide everybody an opportunity to attend!

We have a full and varied programme of presentations and updates from ARGs throughout the UK as well as workshops to suit all interests and to inspire anyone with an interest in herpetology for the season ahead. Everyone is welcome, from novices to students and volunteer surveyors to University Professors!  There will also be an opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones at our Gala Dinner and social evening which includes the return of Britain’s premier herpetological quiz – ‘Have I got newts for you!’

Scottish Herpetology Meeting 2011
Saturday 5th November, Glasgow

A day of presentations and discussion bringing together researchers, workers and hobbyists involved with amphibians and reptiles across Scotland.

To register and for further information visit
www.scottishfrogs.co.uk/SHM2011

or contact a.muir.2@research.gla.ac.uk

Great crested newts, licensing and mitigation training
Course level: advanced.
This course has been designed for ecologists who are ready to take responsibility for great crested newt licensing and mitigation projects. It will also be useful for local authority
ecologists and planners who need to comment on great crested newt issues.

Preston Montford Field Centre Montford Bridge, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY4 1DX
Tuesday November 29th– Thursday December 1st 2011.

SOUTH WEST REGION AMPHIBIAN AND REPTILE GROUPS’ CONFERENCE
Saturday 10th December 2011
Coaver Club, County Hall, Matford Lane, Exeter, Devon County Council, EX2 4PS

SOUTH WEST REGION AMPHIBIAN AND REPTILE GROUPS’ CONFERENCE Saturday 10th December 2011 9.45am – 4pm Exeter
Coaver Club, County Hall, Matford Lane, Exeter,
Devon County Council, EX2 4PS

• Surveying for reptiles using refugia: an assessment of current survey standards, by Vicky Buller
• Troubling Identities: Initial evidence for a successful translocation of the Slow Worm (Anguis fragilis) by Alex Sams
• The Million Ponds project: lessons from the first three years by David Orchard
• Making the adder count in South West England by Jon Cranfield (ARG UK )
• Devon's great crested newts: efforts to conserve an elusive population by Nicky Green and Julia Clark
• Lunchtime seminar: 'Raising the profile of reptiles in the South West' facilitated by Jon Cranfield 

Join our Record Breaking 50 Pond Challenge
Pond Conservation and the Amphibian and Reptile Groups of UK (ARGUK) will be
joining forces with volunteers in Essex to set a world record for the number of wildlife
ponds created by hand, in 24 hours, on 22 & 23 October 2011

• Anna Wilkinson (University of Lincoln) – Amphibian/reptile cognition
• Chris Reading (CEH) – The common toad: egg to 1st hibernation
• Rebecca Scott (Swansea University) – Loggerhead turtles
• Ben Limburn (Bournemouth University) – Dorset smooth snake HSI
• Andy Arnell (ARC) – GCN habitat modelling and status assessment
• John Grundy – Extreme grass snakes
• Lucy Thomas (Bristol University) – Wood ants and reptiles
• Stephen Price (IoZ) – Ranavirus
• Robert Gandola (Dublin) – Herpetofauna surveys in Madagascar

Sunday 4th December 2011, 0930-1700
Lecture Hall, Bournemouth Natural Science Society,
39 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH1 3NS.

A day of presentations and
discussion bringing together
researchers, workers and hobbyists
involved with amphibians and
reptiles across Scotland

contact a.muir.2@research.gla.ac.uk

University of Greenwich, Chatham 19th November

Draft Agenda

• Successes and setbacks from the field:

         Adder workers from across Kent will set the scene by presenting their                    experiences from a variety of sites

• Steve Langham (Surrey ARG)

         The Adder Project - Identifying Adder Metapopulations

• Plus more presentations tbc

The Kent Reptile & Amphibian Group is pleased to be hosting this year's annual regional conference.

The day will include a regional round up by county, followed by an adder conservation symposium, including:

• Setbacks and successes – tales from the field
• Action plans for adder conservation – examples from further afield
• The contribution of genetics to adder conservation
• How do we take adder conservation forward?

University of Greenwich, Chatham

Saturday November 19th 2011

10am – 4pm

Pond Conservation will be running a PSYM pond survey training course this year. The one-day course overs the use of national standard methods for surveying ponds for plants and invertebrates, including methods for assessing pond priority status under the UK Pond Habitat Action Plan.

The course will be held at Pond Conservation's Oxford office on Tuesday 13th September 2011

If you’d like to know more about Ponds this course is for you! This course has been designed for ecologists and land managers with an interest in the assessment, management and creation of ponds for biodiversity. Training will cover: • Ponds in the UK landscape and their conservation status. • Methods to assess ponds, including a practical introduction to the National Pond Survey and PSYM methods. • An overview of pond plants and invertebrates (but please note this is not an ID course). • Best practice principles for creating clean water ponds. • Targeting pond creation for BAP species, with a focus on amphibians and reptiles. • Pond management and the new risk assessment tool.

Come and find out what is living in your pond with Pond Conservation's expert's: Dr Jeremy Biggs, Dr Naomi Ewald and Jon Cranfield Tuesday June 28th 6.30 – 8.30pm

Sutton Courtenay Environmental Education Centre, Sutton Courtenay Road, Sutton Courtenay, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4TE Costs: £3 per person

(Pond Conservation supporters free)includes refreshmentsFor more information or to book a place please contact Nicky Warden on nwarden@pondconservation.org.ukor 01865 483249