Would you like to get involved in amphibian and reptile conservation?

Volunteering for The HCT

The HCT want to provide opportunities for involvement with the appreciation and conservation of herpetofauna (both knowledge development and career) as widely as possible. We are therefore keen to encourage the involvement of volunteers and students through placements. In encouraging and taking on volunteers, we are committed to treating all individuals fairly and with respect.

The HCT will only take on volunteers when there is a clear mutual benefit to be gained by both parties. There should be a need for volunteer help within a specific area or defined project. Ideally this will be an area of work that the volunteer wishes to undertake and we can provide the necessary level of support.

The latest Volunteer's Newsletter can be found here.

Opportunities with The HCT

Practical tasks on our Nature Reserves

The HCT manages 80 Nature Reserve across the country, with 45 in Dorset. The DRCO post focuses on the 10 reserves with the highest public access and therefore most of the practical tasks will take place on these reserves. Perhaps the most valuable way to spend volunteer time is on practical management tasks. They can range from pine pulling and birch removal to litter picking and pond dredging. The range of work that need to be done on the reserves on a daily basis is undoubtedly large! There is a great sense of satisfaction in completing a days physical work. You can look back over what you have done that day in the knowledge that what you have done is going to be a benefit to wildlife for many years to come.

What ever the task in hand, we will ensure that it is of benefit to the wildlife present on the site and that you have all the equipment necessary to complete the job safely (and that you have fun whilst doing it!)

Volunteers creating small ponds on Parley Common

Surveying and Monitoring

This is a extremely useful and rewarding way of becoming involved in herpetofauna conservation. Species recording is important both locally on our sites and will be a major contribution to the national monitoring programmes. We can train people in identification and survey techniques and ensure you are properly licensed. Having regular sets of data also provides useful clues as to whether our practical management is working (or not !).
For monitoring the sites themselves, we need to know where management work has been done, over what extent, any damage caused by misuse, re-growth of certain plants and changes to the site from our and external influences.

Surveying and monitoring can be field, or desk-based activities and include data input or photographic records. So if you are a budding wildlife and landscape photographer, then this may be the opportunity for you!
 

Volunteers surveying for wildlife

Site Wardening

Staff cannot be on all of the sites all the time. Having an on site presence can be the difference in preventing regular misuse. The HCT wants its wardens to have a real sense of ownership of their designated reserve, to be a contact point within the community and to be willing to help out when the need arises. It can be very satisfying being associated a with nature reserve and knowing that just because you are on site, you are helping conserve a rare and valuable habitat for future generations.

Many of the benefits of volunteering are less tangible such as gaining new knowledge about wildlife and the conservation efforts throughout the country, learning new skills, gaining qualifications meeting people with similar interests and contributing to a leading conservation organisation.

Guided Walks on Town Common

Click here for FAQs about volunteer work for The HCT and an application form

Obviously there are many of you who would like to volunteer but do not live near enough to our main areas of concern to help.

In such cases you might well wish to contact your local Amphibian and Reptile Group where you will find like minded people who undertake a great deal of habitat maintenance and monitoring and survey work such as that described above across the country. Even if there is no active group within your immediate area you can always help with monitoring and survey by participating in the NARRS project or going to the Add an Adder site and recording any current or historical accounts of adders to help us assess their current distribution and, equally important, the extent to which they, like so many of our amphibians and reptiles, are disappearing from their previous haunts.

Chytridiomycosis sampling

Amphibian chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis leads to a fungal disease called chytridiomycosis which has already spread worldwide and resulted in substantial population losses and extinctions of amphibian species in the wild  In association with Natural England, the Institute of Zoology and local ARGs, The HCT is involved in a programme to establish the extent of its occurrence within England. Click here for more details about the disease and the investigative work.

You can get involved by with this important programme through your local ARGs - see the link in the section above. 

Habitat Management Guidance

  Even if you are unable to participate in any of the above you may be able to help the animals by managing habitat you are responsible for - whether vast wilderness, substantial grounds or simply your back garden. Follow this link for an introduction to what we can do to offer guidance with Land Management - or you can also follow these links for guidance in amphibian  and reptile habitat management. A leaflet outlining what can be done to promote amphibian and reptile conservation in gardens or other small areas, such as allotments or school grounds, is available in our downloads section here.