Volunteer

Our outdoor habitat management volunteering groups are vital in helping to manage the nature reserves that we care for. Our volunteers are out in all weathers doing tasks such as coppicing, scrub clearance and building fences in woodland, forest, orchards, fields, rivers and canals. Tools and PPE is provided by the Trust, and we will provide training (no prior experience needed). It is physically demanding work, but it is very rewarding!

Join our expert Land Management Officers to undertake practical tasks to restore and enhance habitats on nature reserves, and work with private landowners to connect priority landscapes within our Nature Recovery Zones. We're creating larger areas of connected habitat, allowing wildlife to disperse into the wider countryside to build larger populations, more resilient to future challenges. Full details are provided for each task closer to the day.

Accessibility information: Some of the reserves are on very steep slopes, and might include a bit of a walk to reach the working destination for the day. The majority of our reserves do not have good public transport links; please take this into consideration before registering your interest for a group. Some of the working parties might have loud noises such as chainsaws that some might find difficult (ear protection is brought by the land management team for any who want it). If you have any support needs we advise getting in touch with volunteering@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk so we can discuss further.

Practical groups have a maximum capacity due to safety and supervision.

During the week

Tuesdays

• Stroud Valleys (FULL)
• Cotswold Water Park (FULL)
• Lower Woods to Westonbirt (FULL)
• Forest of Dean 'Dean Green Team' (FULL)
• Lower Wye Valley - once a fortnight, Autumn to Spring. 
• Severn Hams (FULL)

Wednesdays

• Cotswold Escarpment - weekly

Thursdays

• Stroud Valleys - weekly
• Windrush Valley - weekly
• Lower Woods to Westonbirt (FULL)

Fridays

• Robinswood Hill (FULL)
• Cotswold Rivers Group - ad hoc projects around Bourton-on-the-Water and Stroud.

Weekends

• Snows Farm - monthly
• Wood Fuel Group (FULL)
• Cotswold Canals Connected (FULL)

Other

• Cotswold Canals Connected - adhoc opportunities, often on Wednesdays or Thursdays

Join the Evidence team to support us with surveying and monitoring opportunities!

• HabiMap - HabiMap is a very popular project which carries out detailed surveys with the aim to map out the whole of Gloucestershire for more accurate records. Places on HabiMap are in high demand. More information on HabiMap volunteering can be found here.
• NRCM - From Spring to Autumn each year we head out Tuesdays - Thursdays (and sometimes Fridays) to monitor the condition of GWT reserves. Each survey day is 9.30am – 4.30pm approx., and full details and familiarisation are given for each site and habitat. Basic ID skills are ideal for this opportunity. 

As part of our ambitious 2030 strategy we hope to engage one in four people in Gloucestershire with their local wildlife! On the visitor engagement team you could help support us by chatting to people at our visitor centres or at our events. This vital work will help inspire people to connect with nature and give them opportunities to take action for our environment.

To put nature into recovery in Gloucestershire we need everyone to be taking action, collectively even the smallest of actions can make a big difference.

We are fortunate to have the assistance of native breed cattle, ponies and sheep (some we own, some owned by partnering graziers), which have been selected for their hardiness and grazing preferences for managing semi-natural habitats. They are carefully managed to help maintain our nature reserves in good condition, by creating diverse vegetation structure and maintaining open habitat. 

We have a group of active livestock checkers that support us with welfare checks, such as checking water levels, checking for potential injuries or infections and counting that all the animals are where they are supposed to be! This is done on a rota system, with many volunteers supporting us once a week or fortnight, or in the West we also have ‘floating checkers’ who join in as and when they can. On average our livestock checkers offer us between one and two hours of their time a week, and would ideally have a smart phone for communication channels.

If you have an interest in supporting with livestock checking please email volunteering@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk to see if we have any gaps in our rotas.

Our wardens are our eyes and ears on the reserves. They help us check that the reserve is staying in a good condition, reporting issues that might arise. A big part of the role is to chat with people on the reserve to let them know about what might be going on at the reserve, but also to encourage visitors to keep to designated paths and to keep dogs on leads to protect livestock and smaller creatures like adders! We also have designated wardens that help us protect the large blue butterflies in the Golden Valley.

If you have an interest in supporting as a warden please email volunteering@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk with your preferred reserve(s) and we can check to see if we have a need.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust have a great presence throughout primary schools in Gloucestershire to help teach children about wildlife, and also have been running a very successful Schools Quiz for near 50 years! We also run Nature Tots for toddlers at Robinswood Hill, Crickley Hill, Coaley Peak and Greystones Farm, and have some watch groups in the county that are running workshops in their communities.

Our Learning team are incredibly busy, to the point that we have to turn requests away, so we are very grateful for volunteers who are able to help us with sessions. We are particularly keen for those with a teaching background, or are training to do some sort of teaching.

Please note that for this opportunity you will have to undergo a DBS check to ensure you are safe to work with young people.

Are you passionate about Wildlife and eager to help us put nature into recovery? We need help from enthusiastic and inspiring people to encourage their local communities to act for nature.

Our Volunteer Wilder Champions act as ambassadors for Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust helping to build local movements of positive change for Wildlife.

Training and resources will be provided.

To register your interest in becoming a Wilder Champion, please email volunteering@glolucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk. 

Our Youth Advisory Board are a great asset to the organisation, helping us to identify and overcome barriers to engage young people with wildlife. They meet in person at Robinswood Hill about four times a year, but with some additional meetings and communications online too.  This is an opportunity open to 16 - 25 year olds. More information can be found here.

Our Board of Trustees are volunteers who have a responsibility to oversee our vision and strategy for the organisation. We have a mixture of members on the board, including two young trustees. 

Each year we conduct a skills audit and identify any gaps in the skills and experience of the Board. When gaps have been identified, we place an advertisement for new trustees (based on these gaps) in our members' magazine and on our website. We currently do not have any vacancies on our Board. 

For more information on the Board of Trustees, click here.

We also have other office based opportunities. This includes administration tasks, helping the membership team arrange packs, going through wildlife camera footage, creating educational resources for visitors and school visits etc. These might be more adhoc opportunities, depending on the needs of our teams. We can also take volunteers to work on GIS mapping, but this is currently only open to individuals with previous experience as we are not able to offer training at this time.

Do you have a particular skill or idea for volunteering? Feel free to email volunteering@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co,uk to discuss further. 

Once you have found an opportunity you like we need to get you registered to volunteer with us. We are currently in the process of launching a new volunteer management system so if you would like to register to volunteer with us please email volunteering@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk, and we will let you know next steps. Please note that there will be a delay at the moment whilst we are in the final stages of going live with our system, but we look forward to talking to you about volunteering more! You can read up about our different opportunities on our Volunteer homepage. 

We have a range of opportunities to suit different needs. If you'd still like to get outdoors, there are roles which require less physical exertion, and there are also plenty of office-based roles.

Please do get in touch with us to discuss the different options available by emailing volunteering@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk or by ringing 01452 383 333

No experience is needed but a willingness to learn, and any opportunities that require certain skills are taught while volunteering.

Youth Rangers is an opportunity aimed at young people aged 13-17 to volunteer to meet monthly, learn wildlife skills and join in with practical conservation tasks such as scrub clearance, surveying and habitat creation.

16-18 year olds can volunteer on the Youth Advisory Group. We recognise that the future of nature and our connection with it will in part be decided on by young people, and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust wants to be pivotal in making this happen by giving young people a voice.

Also, 16-18 year olds can volunteer with a parent or guardian present, providing we have two spaces available, and at the discretion of the staff member leading the volunteering activity. We're hoping to offer more opportunities for young people in the future, subject to funding and further resources. 

If you are under 18 and want to get involved, have you considered the WilderGlos platform? This is a space you can start taking action for wildlife, and is a great way to get involved. Talking about your progress with WilderGlos is definitely something you could talk about on job applications and CVs too!

Individuals over the age of 18 looking for work experience can potentially join us on some of our pre-arranged volunteering activities, depending on length of time and what opportunities we currently have space on. Please contact volunteering@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk. 

Year 10 students can apply to join for a week's work experience led by our Learning team in the Summer, subject to space. More information can be found here.

We are not able to accommodate Duke of Edinburgh work experience. 

If you have any questions that haven't been answered within these pages, can't find what you want or need a bit more guidance, please contact our volunteer co-ordinator by calling 01452 383333 or emailing volunteering@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk

A copy of our current handbook is attached should you be after any further information. You can also email volunteering@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk for anything you can't see the answer to.