Yorkshire Wildlife Trust manages over 100 reserves and other sites, restoring biodiversity, protecting habitats and wildlife and providing wonderful opportunities for visitors to get close up and see some of our most enthralling wildlife.

Part of the management of many of our grassland, fen and heathland reserves is carried out by grazing animals. Grazing helps control competitive ‘rough’ plant species that can out-compete the finer, more interesting species of grass and wildflower that we seek to encourage. Livestock on the reserves need to be checked every day to ensure that their health is good, and that they are all still present and correct!

Volunteers helping us to carry out these vital checks frees up a great deal of staff time, allowing us to carry out other essential work to keep our reserves in good condition. Visits involve checking for damage to fences, ensuring the drinking water supply is ok, counting the number of animals, and looking for any signs of ill health. If you did see any problems, you would not be expected to deal with them, simply to ring us at YWT to let us know.

Although volunteers with past experience or knowledge of stock is very welcome, no previous knowledge or experience is necessary to volunteer with us in this role, as we will give full training on checking livestock. However, you do need to feel comfortable being around grazing animals.

The main requirement is reliability – the volunteer must check the stock on the morning of their allocated day, or let us know if they can’t so we can make other arrangements. The usual commitment is for a day once a week or fortnight.

You will also need to be fairly physically fit as some of the grazing areas have rough terrain, tussocks, boggy ground etc that you need to be able to negotiate.