Forest Wilding Project Officer

Job summary

What you’ll do…

This role will progress our aspirations for harnessing natural processes in forest management to deliver nature recovery. This will take the Wild Neroche project through delivery phase with our partners, project planning the steps needed to take our vision forward. The post holder will manage successful relationships with our stakeholders, and begin the implementation of key steps on the ground, including monitoring data, and introducing land management techniques to lay the foundations to meet our long term objectives.

This role may be involved in progressing other Forest Wilding projects such as species re-introductions.

Managed by the Operations Manager - Environment, the Wilding Officer will work closely with Forestry England colleagues across West England District and with our national forest wilding and communications functions to help deliver nature recovery.

You can expect to spend up to one third of your time outdoors, often independently and remotely and you will usually be expected to manage your own time to maximise efficiency and effectiveness.

Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

The role will be based at our office near Staple Fitzpaine in the Blackdown Hills (TA3 5BL), other locations may also be considered, with flexibility for some optional blended working.

Job description

Project Management

• Lead the development and delivery of the Wild Neroche project plan.
• Develop long-term budgets for Wild Neroche and potentially other Forest Wilding projects, alongside seeking opportunities for fundraising to potentially include Environmental Land Management, corporate sponsorship and green finance.
• Carry out financial planning, forecasts and expenditure monitoring.
• Ensure Forestry England procurement and contract management regulations are followed throughout the project.
• Contribute to project steering group meetings for Wild Neroche and potentially other Forest Wilding projects.

Land Management

• Undertake scoping of potential introductions of ecosystem engineer species and keystone species to drive ecosystem function.
• Work collaboratively with Natural England, the Blackdown Hill NL and other key local stakeholders to share and develop Forestry England’s vision for Wild Neroche.
• Lead on the implementation of appropriate land management works (e.g. fencing, introduction of herbivores, tree planting, peatland restoration, deer management), working with other Forestry England staff and contractors.
• Ensure that proposed land management interventions are approved through appropriate regulatory mechanisms, e.g. Forest Plans, Natural England assent.

Knowledge and Monitoring

• Commission, manage and interpret surveys and monitoring to gather baseline information relevant to the project at Wild Neroche, including eDNA soil analysis, vegetation and species surveys, and hydrological information.
• Build a network of academic and other advisors, internal and external, and critical friends to advise and guide the project at all stages.
• Work with the national Forest Wilding programme team, colleagues from Forest Research and wider academia to learn from and share best practice from the project.
• Undertake or commission feasibility studies to explore alternative approaches to land management, which explore the natural capital, economic and biodiversity benefits.

Communications and Public Engagement

• Lead the development and delivery of a stakeholder management plan to build support for the project.
• Work with our existing partners to develop the Wild Neroche vision and engage widely to build support for the project.
• Showcase the project to internal and external stakeholders to gain support for forest wilding, nature recovery and further delivery within the public forestry estate.
• Develop relevant events and activities to engage the public with Wild Neroche, working closely with Forestry England’s recreation, communications and Forest Wilding programme teams.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• Experience of project planning and operational management.
• Experience of applied nature conservation and/or forest land management.
• Experience of delivering stakeholder and public engagement in a countryside context and an understanding of relevant engagement methodologies. A natural networker and relationship builder.
• Experience of building effective partnership working with other environmental organisations and landowners.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Experience of public sector procurement

Qualifications

Essential

• Qualification in ecology or conservation or a similar discipline.
• Qualification in project management together with demonstrable experience of conservation land management.

Desirable

• Working towards or have achieved the APM, PMQ or equivalent project management qualification

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,854, Forestry Commission contributes £9,807 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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.
• STaR is 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.

Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

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 and strength based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

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.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

Forestry England Job Description - Forest Wilding Project Officer (PB5) Opens in new window (pdf, 140kB)