Conservation Assistant

Conservation Assistant (Climate Change) - FTC to 31 July 2025.

Are you passionate about climate change mitigation? Looking to gain experience and skills in peatland restoration and woodland creation?

If so, this is an amazing opportunity to develop your career in conservation with the North York Moors National Park Authority.

Funding has been secured for this new post through the Nature for Climate Peatland Restoration Grant Scheme. This project will allow us to restore 1,100 ha of blanket bog and will take 4 days a week of your time.

For the remaining day you will work with our woodland creation team working on the Authority’s own projects.

The Benefits
- Salary £25,119
- 25 days annual leave per annum (rising annually by one day to 30 days) plus eight public holidays
- Flexible working system
- Training and development opportunities
- Learn valuable skills in conservation project management, peatland restoration and woodland creation from an experienced conservation team
- Work within one of the UK’s most stunning landscapes

This is an amazing opportunity to gain experience working with contactors using a range of peatland restoration measures and the monitoring of peatland sites. You will also gain experience of working with grant funding organisations.

This is a great chance to gain skills in woodland creation planning and implementation within the National Park.

As well as enhancing your existing conservation skills you will have the satisfaction of making a real difference to the National Park’s climate change and carbon reduction aspirations.

The Role

The majority of your time will be spent on peatland restoration where you will coordinate the monitoring of our peatland restoration sites. You will assist in a programme of site visits to ensure restoration work is taking place according to specifications and contractors are working safely. Once you’re suitably trained, you will have the chance to work with teams of volunteers in delivering peatland restoration monitoring across our project sites.

Working with the Woodland Creation Team you will help to deliver the Authority’s woodland creation projects. There will be an interesting opportunity to develop a monitoring protocol for our newly created woodlands and assisting in desk-based modelling of possible woodland creation sites.

Reporting to the Moor to Restore Project Officer and the Woodland Creation Officer you will carry out a range of tasks as part of a team. Some of these tasks will be outdoors and in remote locations.

**Working hours**: 37 hours per week.

Based in the Helmsley office with some home working and substantial travel around the National Park (pool cars available).

About You

To join us as a Conservation Assistant (Climate Change), you will need:

- A degree in Environmental Science, Geography, or another related discipline. Applicants without a degree but with suitable experience can also be considered.
- Knowledge of Upland Ecology, peat restoration, woodland creation, and habitat management.
- Skills in achieving good quality work from contractors.
- Some experience of gathering and working with large data sets.
- Knowledge of climate change and climate change mitigation strategies.
- Experience working with GIS, digital mapping and aerial photographs.
- A love of working outdoors throughout the year.
- To be a great team player.

**Closing date**: Wednesday 27 September
Interviews are scheduled for Monday 9 October