Scouts become Adder Advocates

25 July 2025

The North Pennines National Landscape team has been working closely with the 1st Stanhope Scouts to raise awareness of adders in the North Pennines.

The Scouts are now working towards a special ‘community impact’ badge, where they work towards being ‘adder advocates.’

Adder advocates are those that share positive adder messaging with their peers, take part in activities to support adder conservation, deliver inventive ways to increase awareness of the status of adders in England, and take action for nature.

Their work towards their adder advocate badge began with an information evening where the young people learned about adders and their conservation status. Adders are under threat and it is predicted that all small adder populations in England could disappear by 2032.

Beavers, Cubs and Scouts took part in adder stone scavenger hunt which sparked discussion about adder identification, ecology, conservation threats and how to help adders. They were also introduced to the North Pennines team’s Adder-venture game which is a fun board game which explores key ecological events in a year in the life of an adder. Playing the game also prepared them to share the Adder-venture game with other young people at community events.

They were able to share the Adder-venture game, and other adder activities by supporting the North Pennines National Landscape team at this summer’s Stanhope Weekender festival. To spread the word further in the community the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts have worked on adder posters for display as well as painting their own adder stones with adder messages to place around Weardale for members of the community to find.

With Sarah Ingwersen, the North Pennines National Landscape team’s Education and Engagement Officer, the group visited a constructed hibernaculum at Ashes Quarry in Stanhope. The hibernaculum is a sheltered place for adders to spend the winter and the young people were able to observe key habitat features and identify how adders exist within the landscape.

Sarah said: “Beavers, Cubs and Scouts, as adder advocates, are currently delivering positive adder messaging to their families and communities, and at events such as the Stanhope Weekender to earn their community impact badge. It’s great to see this group of young people sharing the love of this special species with such enthusiasm.”

The bespoke Adder Advocate badge was designed by Scout Leader, Caroline Sawyer, who has worked with the North Pennines team to facilitate this project.