Devon Wildlife Trust seeks to promote, enhance create and restore habitats, species and maximise environmental gain through providing advice and support to implement sustainable land management practices.

The Working Wetlands team through the Upstream Thinking Programme: work to promote sustainable land management practices by advising and supporting farmers and landowners. We also advise on and physically deliver a wide range of habitat enhancement, restoration, and creation activity which, includes: culm and species rich grasslands, wetlands of various kinds river re-naturalisation and natural flood management works to benefit the wider environment.

In order to extend our work, we are looking to create opportunities for volunteers in shadowing, mentoring and contributing to farm advisory activity and to support in various other practical tasks that contribute to these goals.

An area of interest and knowledge and experience perhaps with a qualification in one of or more of the following topic areas would be highly advantageous.

• Agriculture
• Ecology
• Sustainable land management practices
• Water quality
• Hydrology and Rivers
• An understanding of woodlands & grassland management
• Geographic Information Systems
• Habitats and ecosystem services

The following skills would be useful for the role:

• Volunteers will need to be able to drive and be mobile to venture over farmland and investigate habitats often in steep and wet areas.

• Analyse and collate information with a degree of judgement to make recommendations and contribute to discussions.

• This is an outward facing role, all volunteers will need to behave in a professional and courteous way with land owners and be prepared for any weather.

• The volunteer farm adviser will need to react positively to instruction of the mentoring farm adviser. Farms and farmyards are dangerous places and conformity to the risk assessment process is entirely necessary.

For further information, please see the role profile below.