Forest Craftsperson

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 294585**Salary**:

- £23,098 - £23,098- Please note that our salary pay bands are set by national agreements so are non-negotiable regardless of previous experience. See also our employee benefits (below).- A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%**Job grade**:

- Administrative Officer- Pay Band 6b**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- FC - Forestry England - East District**Type of role**:

- Environment and Sustainability
- Operational Delivery**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- District Office, Santon Downham, Brandon, Suffolk, IP27 0TJAbout the job

**Job summary**:
Forestry England are seeking skilled forest operative to fill a forest Craftsperson vacancy in East England Forest District. Based out of Santon Downham, Suffolk. The work will mainly be based in Thetford forest as well as our North Norfolk woodlands with occasional travel elsewhere.

Forest Craftspersons work a standard 37 hour week usually 07:00 to 15:00 (14:30 Fridays) with occasional overtime to meet operational requirements.

We depend on our Craftspeople to meet high standards whilst working remotely to complete a range of tasks from large-scale tree planting and mechanical weeding programmes to fixing broken gates. The successful applicants will be flexible and adaptable practical thinkers who are resourceful and trustworthy. They will be willing and able to work equally productively on their own or in collaboration with others.

A Craftsperson job is outdoors in all weathers demanding physical and mental resilience in return we offer a generous benefits package including enrolment in the (with 27% employer contribution), generous shared parental leave, 25 days leave (rising to 30 after 5 years’ service) taken flexibly throughout the year plus public and privilege holidays.

**Job description**:
**Background information: East England Forest District**

Thetford Forest lies in the heart of East Anglia. The forest is approximately 20,000ha predominantly pine plantation designated as SPA/SSSI. Our North Norfolk woods are managed by staff based in Thetford Forest and are a mixture of plantation and ancient woodland sites.

Thetford & North Norfolk have an annual establishment programme of over 1 million trees with 1000ha currently within the managed establishment phase. The thinning and clearfell harvesting programme supplies around 80,000tonnes of timber a year to the UK’S wood processing industries. A Forest Resilience Programme is currently considering how we can adapt our forest management in the face of projected climate change effects on temperature, rainfall and extreme weather events.

Each forest Beat area is managed by a local team comprising a Forester, Work Supervisor, Forest Craftspeople. They are supported by locally based Wildlife Rangers and Community/Recreation Rangers. Recreation Centres have their own site management staff. District-wide administration and specialist staff are based at the Santon Downham office in Suffolk.

The District has an extensive commercial timber harvesting and tree establishment programmes across the district supplying a wide range of products from milling timber to coppice material.

There are numerous sites of conservation interest designated across the District, including Special Protection Areas (SPA) to conserve the breeding habitat for the Woodlark and Nightjar, Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), Sites of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI), Areas of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB), Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland (ASNW), County Wildlife Sites (CWS) and Scheduled Monuments (SM).

The District offers outdoor recreation, leisure and wellbeing activities for hundreds of thousands of people each year at its recreation centres. Forestry England’s whole freehold estate is dedicated for public access on foot, with numerous small carparks and informal access points.

Although most of a Craftsperson’s daily work is carried out from their base location, Forestry England is a national organisation so from time to time meetings and training events will be held in other parts of the country.

**Person specification**:
We are looking for people with enthusiasm, good communication skills, resourcefulness, and an ability to work safely and productively as part of a team and independently. The work tasks require driving to site, sometimes towing a trailer.

We expect Craftspeople to be able to:

- operate and maintain tools and resources to required standards and ensure that a safe working site and safe methods are planned and maintained
- work constructively and effectively with immediate work colleagues and the wider Forest District Team
- be capable of planning, undertaking and recording practical tasks without supervision, planning tasks efficiently
- take pride in th