Nature and Conservation roles
Conservation Volunteer - Landport Bottom and Butt's Brow, Lewes
You can get involved with this regular monthly conservation group on the chalk grassland habitat at Landport Bottom, just outside Lewes. These roles with the Railway Land Wildlife Trust will suit you if you are interested in nature and outdoor experiences and are happy working as part of a team.
You'd be part of a friendly group working together to protect and restore this diverse and threatened habitat. As well as learning about chalk grassland ecology and developing ID skills for wild flowers, invertebrates, birds, reptiles and mammals, you'll gain practical skills in habitat management such as scrub management, invasive species control, fencing and footpath repair. You could also get involved with seasonal ecological surveying, practical estate work, occasional events and guided walks.
Conservation Volunteer - Southwick Hill, Brighton
Southwick Hill is a designated local wildlife site with beautiful and rare habitats including chalk grassland, which is home to many species found almost nowhere else. Over recent years, the condition of these habitats has been in decline on Southwick Hill due to lack of grazing and management.
We need volunteers to help us carry out important work such as scrub clearance and maintenance to support grazing livestock, which will conserve and restore the precious chalk grassland. In the spring and summer months we’ll also go for wildlife walks and carry out surveying to monitor how the Downland species are faring.
This National Trust role will suit you if you are someone who loves to work outdoors. eare nthusiastic about conserving nature and the Downs, and keen to learn new skills and share knowledge and skills. Volunteers need to be relatively fit and mobile as, although most tasks can be adapted, we're often working on slopes and uneven terrain.
Conservation Volunteer - Wilding Waterhall, Brighton
Volunteers are needed at Waterhall to carry out practical conservation tasks and citizen science surveying within the Brighton and Hove City Council's new local nature reserve. No experience is necessary, just the enthusiasm to help the rangers improve this important local nature reserve. All training and tools will be provided.
Tasks will include scrub clearance, wildflower planting and seeding, hedgerow planting, litter picking, stock fence construction and surveying for wildlife. There will also be a chance to join the City Parks Lookering programme to help with sheep, cattle, and pony grazing on the site.
Conservation Volunteer - Various local wildlife sites
Help to support nature and restore beautiful habitats across local wildlife sites on the South Downs. You'll learn about the rare chalk grassland habitat and help to restore it, providing important stepping-stones, or corridors, for wildlife across the landscape. This is a practical role for outdoorsy types, with activities such as chopping, sawing, raking, lopping, hammering, fencing, burning or making habitat piles, and clearing scrub. In summer you may get invovled with plant and animal surveying. You'll need a reasonable level of initial fitness, but you'll work at your own pace, as well as being in some great countryside sites alongside skilled nature conservation professionals.
Pollinator Monitoring Volunteer
This seasonal volunteering role might suit if you want to get involved but you can't commit all year round. BugLife need volunteers to monitor pollinating insects, either in your local greenspace or garden, as well as helping out on surveys for specific species of pollinator such as the Large Scabious Mining Bee.
You will learn about different groups of pollinating insects, how to identify them and how to contribute your records to national surveys. No experience is needed as training will be given and no particular equipment is needed for the training.Some sites are accessible by public transport, others require a car to get to them, but travel expenses can be reimbursed.
Wart-biter Bush-cricket Monitoring Volunteer
BugLife also need volunteers to help monitor Wart-biter Bush-cricket populations. This rare and endangered Bush-cricket is only known in six sites in the whole country, 4fourof which are in the Changing Chalk project area. They are active in the summer months, primarily during July and August, so this is a very seasonal role. We monitor them by listening for the male’s song, so good hearing is required. You will be walking across sometimes steep slopes but otherwise no specific clothing or equipment is required.
You will learn what Wart-biter Bush-crickets sound like and how we monitor populations. Once trained, there is the opportunity to undertake this essential monitoring of the species as part of a small group of volunteers. You will also learn about chalk grassland and how it is managed.