Area Ecologist in Coleford

Join us. We’re foresters, professionals and experts. We are a passionate team who love to share our enthusiasm and want to make a positive difference for you and the environment. Together, we’re using our scale and expertise to grow the nation’s forests for everyone. We’re already adapting our landscapes for tomorrow, and getting stuff done today, like creating amazing places and experiences for you to enjoy. We’re providing vital homes for wildlife, making our air cleaner to breathe and producing sustainable timber.

Our vision is that the nation’s forests will provide the most valuable places for wildlife to thrive and expand in England. Our Area Ecologists play a key role in the delivery of that vision by providing ecological advice and inspiring others to support our work for nature. The postholder will provide ecological advice to operational teams to ensure species, habitats and designated sites are managed in accordance with wildlife legislation, policy and best practice guidance. The postholder will also carry out monitoring of a range of habitats and species and support our planning and recreation teams in decision making. This role reports to the District Ecologist and will be based from the Coleford Office in the Forest of Dean. You will have the opportunity to work with experienced colleagues, passionate about their contribution to sustainable forestry, conservation and the organisation’s overarching strategy. You will help to connect everyone with the nation’s forests, caring for them for people to enjoy, wildlife to flourish and business to grow.

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

• Operational Delivery
  • Work with Beat teams and District staff to ensure operational plans and recreational activities comply with protected species legislation and provide advice on a range of ecological constraints and opportunities.
  • Through the completion of wildlife surveys and assessments inform project managers of wildlife constraints and opportunities associated with forest and management interventions.
  • Foster a positive team working relationship so as to inspire and engage everyone to drive beneficial change for the benefit of wildlife.
  • Be open and realistic as to the challenges inherent in the business, promoting transparency and constructive dialogue.
• Habitat Management and Enhancement
  • Plan and deliver habitat management across key sites including statutory designated sites, ancient woodland and priority habitats.
  • Use forest operations as an opportunity to enhance habitat condition and connectivity through collaboration with the Beat teams.
  • Support the Forest Planning team with preparing Forest Plan revisions and management plans by using local and expert knowledge to inform management decisions.
  • Identify, develop and implement nature restoration projects ensuring readiness for funding opportunities and supporting both existing and new initiatives.
• Monitoring
  • Deliver strategic ecological monitoring and analysis, contributing to evidence-based decision making and natural capital approaches.
  • Collaborate and build relationships with stakeholders including statutory bodies, NGOs, academic institutions and community groups to support sustainable forest management.
  • Advise Permissions and Beat teams through consultation process on the suitability of permission applications.
  • Manage volunteers and work with contractors and partner organisations to achieve shared objectives.
  • Utilising existing groups and agreements engage with and facilitate groups and individuals to aid habitat management and species monitoring.
  • Proactively liaise with communications and marketing colleagues so as to champion success and promote our work.

Location-specific information

The postholder will be based in the Coleford Office in the Forest of Dean.

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Good wildlife identification skills, especially for protected species.
• Experience or an understanding of forestry and woodland management.
• Up-to-date knowledge of environmental legislation, particularly biodiversity, and experience of its application to land management.
• Excellent team and partnership working, with a track record of interdisciplinary working and with experience balancing ecological requirements with commercial and social objectives.
• Competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Experience monitoring schedule 1 birds, particularly raptors.
• Experience or understanding of the UK forestry sector, the UK Forestry Standard and UKWAS certification.
• Experience of managing small nature recovery projects.
• Good knowledge of biodiversity net gain and/or experience of the planning system.

Qualifications

Essential

• The successful applicant is very likely to have a degree or equivalent in ecology, nature conservation or environmental management or comparable experience.

Desirable

• Membership of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management.
• European protected species licenses (EPS) Schedule 1 license.

Benefits

• Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.
• 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
• STaRis our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
• Free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
• A commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.

How to Apply

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form. You will be assessed on experience, behaviour and strength based questions during your interview. The Behaviours being assessed at interview are – Working Together, Delivering At Pace, Seeing the big picture.

If candidates pass the interview but are not the leading candidate they can be placed on a reserve list. We may offer candidates on the reserve list for this role the opportunity to be considered for other roles at the same or lower pay bands. Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check. If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you’re planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you’ve read our guidelines here first. Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

Nationality Requirements

Read more about nationality requirements here.

Working for the Civil Service

Forestry England is part of the Civil Service. The Civil Service has a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). This means candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria during the application process will be guaranteed an interview. We also offer a Redeployment Interview Scheme to current civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the role. This role is also part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans and Prison Leaver Recruitment initiative.

Within Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, it is essential that applicants should have the ability to provide conversation in accurate spoken English. Our recruitment process makes appointments based on fair and open competition and merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in in line with/according to these principles and you wish to make a complaint, please email englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk.

This role is funded by DEFRA rather than through Forestry England generated revenue, and is therefore subject to government spending reviews. While DEFRA has indicated long term support for the Biodiversity Programme and we expect funding to continue, it is possible that funding levels may change at the end of any financial year depending on DEFRA’s budget allocations. In the event of funding changes, we would prioritise retaining staff posts wherever possible. This approach is consistent for roles within publicly funded organisations. We are committed to keeping staff informed and supported through any changes.