Reserves Warden Wiltshire Chalk

RSPB

Winterbourne Downs, Newton Tony, Wiltshire
£29,200 - £31,347 pa
Full Time • Permanent
Closing on Tue, 25th Feb 2025

Conservation & WildlifeEcology


This is a wonderful opportunity for someone looking to develop their species and habitat monitoring and estate and volunteer management skills in a wildlife-rich lowland farmland setting. You will be taking a lead role in the implementation of management plan delivery, species and habitat monitoring and volunteer management across RSPB's Wiltshire Chalk reserves.

What's the role about?

You will be joining a small friendly team based at RSPB Winterbourne Downs set in the picturesque rolling downlands close to Stonehenge and Salisbury Plain. You will be delivering management to reconnect the landscape for the stone-curlew and iconic chalk downland wildlife, from corn buntings and lapwings to green-winged orchids and Adonis blue butterflies.

Working alongside a site manager, estate operations manager and assistant warden this will involve using your experience to oversee the monitoring programme for the reserves, and delivery of management plan prescriptions. You will also be responsible for developing and managing the volunteer team to efficiently deliver monitoring and management plan and estate management activities.

You will lead on the delivery of the monitoring and advisory commitments on RSPB’s land management agreements at Normanton Down, Cholderton and Suddern Hill and oversee the preparation of the LMA Annual Reports.

You will ensure that the reserves are managed in accordance to best practice with respect to Health & Safety, environmental management and legal compliance of conservation and land management operations.

You will arrive at an exciting time when we are taking on the management of an ex-dairy farm for Wiltshire Council to create the Roundbarrow nature reserve. This will involve the creation of new chalk grasslands and the opportunity to oversee monitoring and volunteer work parties and public events in the transformation to a new downland nature reserve.

Essential skills, knowledge and experience: 

  1. Land especially conservation management.
  2. Relevant ecological knowledge.
  3. Biological monitoring.
  4. Health & Safety applying to site management (e.g. risk assessments).
  5. Individual and team management skills.
  6. Volunteer management.
  7. Record keeping/data management.
  8. Organisational including time management and prioritisation.
  9. Working with contractors

Desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

  1. Machinery operations, equipment servicing.
  2. Working with visitors.
  3. IT and database (Merlin).

Additional Information

This is a Permanent Full-Time role for 37.5 hours per week. 

We are looking to conduct interviews for this position from w/c 10th March 2025. For further information please contact: [email protected]

As part of this application process you will be asked to provide a copy of your CV and complete an application form including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience listed above.

We are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse RSPB, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. To achieve our vision of creating a world richer in nature, we need more people, and more diverse people, on nature’s side. People of colour and disabled people are currently underrepresented across the environment, climate, sustainability, and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we are particularly interested in receiving your application. Contact us to discuss any additional support you may need to complete your application.

The RSPB is a licenced sponsor. This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship - the successful applicant will need to have a pre-existing Right to Work in the UK in order to be offered an employment contract.

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About RSPB

The RSPB is a charity for the conservation of birds and nature. We bring people together who love birds and other wildlife, and who want to take action to restore the health and diversity of the natural world. We carry out conservation on a large scale, protect and restore habitats, and save species from extinction. We’re living in a nature and climate emergency, and we won’t stop whilst the threats persist. We believe our work makes a real difference to the world we live in. It takes a great team to save nature and we need a wide range of skills to make it happen. As an RSPB employee, you will be helping to save nature every time you come to work. There’s never been a more important time to protect our wildlife and wild places, so we want to make sure you feel rewarded for everything you help us to achieve. 

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