Job Profile: Lead Outreach Adviser – Northern Forest

Name: Alasdair Fagan

Employer: Woodland Trust

Location: Home based – covering North and East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire

 

Job Responsibilities:

Deliver woodland conservation outcomes through creation, restoration and sustainable management of native wooded habitats on land outside the Woodland Trust’s own estate, contributing to the Trust’s objective of landscape scale ecological change, and line manage and support other team members to do the same. Doing this through providing appropriate advice to landowners and managers, managing contractors and consultants, development and delivery of landscape scale projects and partnerships with other organisations, and managing advisers within a larger team, sharing expertise and ensuring high professional standards are maintained.

Majority of time is spent: developing woodland creation projects on third party owned land; managing a small team; strategic partnership work.

Time spent indoors vs outdoors is seasonal. Spring/summer visits tend to be quite frequent and in winter there are visits to sites to check progress of works but there are also spells where time in the office is needed to progress projects. Spring and summer are often spent going out to meet landowners to walkover prospective woodland creation sites. The length of time it takes to develop a woodland creation scheme can depend on the complexity and/or size of the site but often the work through the summer is focused on the design of projects (species, open space etc.) and to get them through the regulatory system (Environmental Impact Assessments).

The winter is tree planting season (November onwards). The work at that time of year varies but is usually focused on the practical delivery of the woodland creation schemes that have been in development through the year. This includes organising tree planting contractors, tree deliveries, liaising with tree nurseries, overseeing works, checking the quality of work, liaising with the landowner and managing budgets. It can feel particularly busy at this time of year – often the work that can happen is heavily influenced by weather and site conditions (for example if the ground is frozen).

 

Qualifications needed:

Qualified to HND/degree level in forestry, land management or related field.

Additional training: I’ve had various additional training qualifications for previous roles. Having worked in woodland creation for over 10 years I have had jobs that have included more practical management of specific sites. These have included strimmer and brush cutter tickets, quad bike training, first aid, woodland management qualifications, identification courses (fungi, plants, birds, invertebrates). Whilst I find I don’t use them all in my job now they have formed the basis of my experience and I take that practical experience into my current role.

Skills needed: Good partnership working skills, strong communications skills (both verbal and written), results driven, strongly self-motivated, able to act with initiative, good knowledge of woodland ecology. 

 

Advice to anyone looking at similar roles:

Get as much practical experience as you can at the start of your career. I knew that I wanted to work in the woodland creation sector and so I tried to get as many qualifications and as much practical experience as possible (of physical management but also in delivering woodland creation/tree planting projects).

It’s worth being mindful that progression from roles that are entirely focussed on practical delivery often can mean less time outside, so there is balance to be had!

Go and visit as many woodland creation sites as possible. The more sites you have been to the more rounded your understanding of all the different issues and challenges there are when trying to establish trees, it really pays off.