Wildlife Ranger

Job summary

What you’ll do…

As Wildlife Ranger, you will work as part of the district's wildlife management team, protecting forests and supporting conservation priorities, including mammal management. You will be a champion for our health and safety culture by demonstrating our value of ‘look out and look after’.

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

Where you’ll work…

The Micheldever Beat covers 3,300 hectares and has several priority sites within it including the Thames Basin Heath SPA which is critically important for ground nesting birds. We work in partnership in this area with stakeholders including Natural England. We have a legal requirement to ensure our activities in this area do not impact the SPA designation which is a key role undertaken by the Wildlife Ranger. To the south of the beat a mixture broad leaf and conifer cover many ancient woodland sites.

The role has regular access to office facilities across the District

Micheldever Beat Office – Kings Worthy nr Winchester SO21 3BP

The Kings House, Lyndhurst SO43 7NH.

It is our expectation for any successful candidate that they will live within their ‘Beat’. Maps of the Beats can be found attached to this advert in a separate pdf.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

• promote a positive and inclusive culture, and actively promote collaboration and support across the district and with stakeholders.
• champion our health & safety culture, using Forestry England’s systems and protocols.
• achieve a personal, variable cull of deer and other mammals to protect our forest crop and biodiversity led by District management plans and wider organisational objectives.
• make sure the deer larder, deer carcases and paperwork meet Forestry England standards, game dealer specification and the requirements of the British Quality Wild Venison scheme (BQWV).
• contribute to district conservation projects and schemes.
• build and maintain productive relationships with stakeholders.
• liaise regularly with district colleagues and help with beat planning, monitoring and delivery including restocking plans, species choice, tree protection and infrastructure requirements.
• do ecological and pre-operation site surveys, advising colleagues of protected species and features of ecological interest.
• liaise with sporting tenants and sporting rights holders.
• support district colleagues engaging with woodland users and promote positive behaviour for protecting forest habitats and infrastructure.
• produce hazard and constraints maps and risk assessments for deer management.
• maintain and be responsible for all equipment issued to you by Forestry England.
• supervise wildlife management and conservation contracts to Forestry England’s policy, procedure and guidance (PPGs), deer management-related policies and industry best practice.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• experience in wildlife (deer) management and wildlife conservation.
• experience in land management and conservation.
• good understanding of woodland management and woodland ecology.
• experience of using effective communication skills to convey messages to a variety of audiences.
• competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications.
• be able to manage a deer dog to Forestry England’s standard.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• •experience of building management.

Qualifications

Essential

• DMQ deer stalker’s certificates levels 1 and 2 including ‘trained hunter’ status.
• current police firearms certificate.
• full UK driving license.

Desirable

• qualification in wildlife or conservation land management such as a BTEC National Diploma.
• european protected species (EPS) handling licences.
• driving license category B E or be willing to obtain this during your probation.
• appropriately trained in the safe use of Sit-Astride ATVs (Quad Bikes) or be willing to obtain this within the probationary period.
• Forestry First Aid F+.

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Seeing the Big Picture

Technical skills

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

• Technical Skills: A firearms skills test. You will be observed at all times and all your actions will be taken into account whilst handling a firearm. The firearms skills test will follow the DSC level 1 Shooting Assessment

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,793, Forestry Commission contributes £10,079 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

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, Experience and Technical skills.

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 a technical skill and strength based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

Working Together
Managing a Quality Service
Delivering at Pace
Seeing the Big Picture

Strengths:

Analytical
Inclusive
Organiser

Technical Skills: A firearms skills test. You will be observed at all times and all your actions will be taken into account whilst handling a firearm. The firearms skills test will follow the DSC level 1 Shooting Assessment

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 - Wildlife Ranger (PB6A Ops) Opens in new window (pdf, 114kB)South District Beats Map (3) Opens in new window (pdf, 246kB)