1. Jon Cranfield Herpetologic Ltd
Mitigation for Adder
What makes a successful mitigation project?
Jon Cranfield
Herpetologic Ltd

2. Introduction 15 years in the ecological consultancy sector
Worked with adders - Cornwall, Scotland, Durham, Essex, Kent, Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, and Norfolk
I love the adder and I have had the pleasure of working with this species for over 15 years in the UK. I can remember the first projects I worked on right up until the larger more successful projects recently in Essex. I am now a manager of a private nature reserve which has a translocated adder population.

3. Mitigation project experience
Adders – n = 25
Translocations over 1,000m - < 6
Translocations within 1,000m - 15
Mitigation RAM or similar – 4
What makes a successful mitigation project?

4. What makes a successful mitigation project?
Adequate surveys
Timing – Spring emergence (MTAC)
Avoidance of impacts
Individual animals
Important habitat features
Creation of new habitats
Connectivity
Management
Better habitat protection?

5. Post project monitoring
MTAC protocols
ACO surveys
Post development management
Vegetation clearance
Habitat creation
Working with Landowners
Agri environment schemes
Biodiversity offsetting?

6. Case Study – Broadlands Flood Alleviation Project

8. Pre project surveys (surveys)
Initial surveys – Visual Encounter Surveys (VES)
Relative abundance
Distribution
Identification of important habitat features

9. Pre project surveys (surveys)
Initial surveys – Visual Encounter Surveys (VES)
Relative abundance
Distribution
Identification of important habitat features

10. What makes a successful mitigation project?
Habitat creation and enhancements
Release sites
Hibernation sites
Surface dens
Avoiding translocation
within home range
Temporary or permanent?
Disease issues
Genetic issues

13. What makes a successful mitigation project?

15. Conservation Evidence Paper –
Whiting C. & Booth H. (2012) Adder Vipera berus hibernacula construction as part of a mitigation scheme, Norfolk, England. Conservation Evidence, 9, 9-16
Acknowledgements
Christian Whiting, Helen Booth, all the Broadlands Project staff, contractors, John Baker, Ray Cranfield, Darryn Nash, Ian Bradley, Kevin Morgan, Gareth Matthes, Environment Agency
Barratts Eastern Counties, John Sawdon, Peter West, Will Corbet, Blake Tipton, James Read, Peter Hayward, Charlie Philp and many more people I have worked with over the years….