Seasonal Warden

PLEASE NOTE: The office is Heather Farm, Woking, Surrey GU21 4XY.

You must be able to travel to the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area (TBH SPA) daily, with the role requiring occasional weekend/early morning and evening work. The TBH SPA and local partners fall within parts of Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey.

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Our Role

Natural England is the Government's adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.

Recovering Nature- Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.

Building Better Places- Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.

Improving Health and Wellbeing- Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.

Delivering Security through Nature- Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at:

Natural England's Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK.

The Team

The team provides an on-the-ground wardening service on the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area (TBH SPA). Working closely with the Special Protection Area (SPA) landowners and managers and other key partners (including local authorities, Wildlife Trusts, the RSPB, Ministry of Defence, Forestry Commission, and The Crown Estate), the team engages directly with the public through engagement and education to raise awareness amongst visitors of the importance and sensitivity of this internationally important heathland site.

The Thames Basin Heaths Partnership (TBHP), hosted by Natural England's Thames Solent Area Team, is fully funded from developer contributions, and is overseen by the Thames Basin Heaths (TBH) Joint Strategic Partnership Board (JSPB), a body comprising eleven local authorities, and Hampshire and Surrey County Councils., Responsibilities for this Warden role will be engaging with the public on the SPA and at events, to raise awareness about the SPA's importance, spreading wildfire awareness and promoting Suitable Accessible Natural Greenspace (SANG) sites as alternatives.

Additionally, this role will provide support to the team's communications and monitoring functions, through providing social media content, writing articles, and collecting data through surveys.

The role requires some involvement with the Heathland Hounds project - a sub team of the TBH SAMM project, focused on interacting with dog walkers - who are a key audience to which the projects key message 'paws on paths' is aimed, to encourage behaviour change and ultimately protect the SPA and reduce disturbance to its protected species.