Volunteer Opportunities

Would you like to be one of our Visitor Centre volunteers? 

Our centres are the first point of contact for everyone visiting the Nature Reserve at Rutland Water, and it is great to be able to welcome them with a smile.

Tasks involved:

We are looking for volunteers to help us welcome visitors at both the Lyndon Visitor Centre and Anglian Water Birdwatching Centre.  You will play a vital role as one of the first points of contact to the reserve, engaging with the public and telling them more about our learning, shopping, community events and activities.

• You will be asked to give our visitors a warm welcome whilst operating the reception desk and phone.
• Encourage donations and membership by talking to visitors about the work of the Trust.
• Operate the till to receive payment for admissions, tickets and retail purchases (training provided).
• Assist with enquiries for events and activities.
• Help in the shop with restocking, tidying and selling items.

Skills required:

No previous skills are required as training will be given. However, a friendly approach and an enthusiasm to help visitors is key to the role and a willingness to contribute positively towards the team and supporting staff in their day-to-day work. An interest in wildlife is an added bonus to help us engage our visitors.

Training will be delivered on how to work the till.  Volunteers will also have several ‘shadowing’ sessions at Lyndon Visitor Centre with both staff and other volunteers until they feel confident enough to manage the desk by themselves. There will always be staff on site and volunteers will never be left in the visitor centre alone. 

Hours Required:

We are open 7 days per week and are looking for volunteers to help be on our rota.

• From March - October volunteer hours are 9am-1pm or 1pm-5pm
• From November - February hours are 9.00am-12.30pm or 12.30pm - 4.00pm

Location:

Anglian Water Birdwatching Centre or Lyndon Visitor Centre, Rutland Water Nature Reserve.

We are looking for practical conservation volunteers to help us deliver the habitat management work required on our reserves in the west of the county. Our reserves require management in order to halt or reverse successional processes. Left unmanaged, our grasslands and heathlands would revert to woodland and we would lose the wildlife which favours the aforementioned habitats. Even our woodlands require management to create and maintain structural diversity and encourage a broad range of species. 

Hours required:

Volunteering workdays take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and one Sunday a month, across any of our reserves in the West. If you apply to be a volunteer, you will receive an email every Friday outlining the tasks and locations for the following week and you can sign up for any of these.

Each working party is around 5 hours long (usually 9.30/9.45-2.30/2.35 weekdays and 10-2/3 on Sundays)

Tasks involve:

Our work is responsive, but there are seasonal trends, such as woodland, hedgerow and scrub work in winter, fencing and infrastructure repairs in the bird breeding season, invasive species work in the heat of the summer and mowing and raking in August and September. 

Skills required:

No experience is required, as we provide training. Anybody and everybody is welcome. As long as a person is reasonably fit and enjoys being outside in all weathers.

Location:

“Western” reserves

Regular work party days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and one Sunday a month

Reserve Officers: Andy Neilson, Sophia Attwood-Clarke, & Chris Hill

• Altar Stones

• Charley Woods

• Charnwood Lodge

• Cloud Wood

• Cossington Meadows

• Croft Pasture

• Dimminsdale

• Fox Wood

• Kelham Bridge

• Lea Meadows

• Lucas Marsh

• Miles Piece

• Mountsorrel and Rothley Marshes

• Narborough Bog

• Rocky Plantation

• Syston Lakes

• Tilton Cutting

• Tom Longs Meadow

• Ulverscroft

• Wanlip Meadows

• Wymeswold Meadows

What's involved

Getting together with fellow wildlife enthusiasts for recording days at varied locations across the Charnwood Forest Geopark. A good excuse to get outside, learn from each other and perhaps discover new green spaces!

We will make records of anything and everything, and these will all be submitted to NatureSpot. Happy to take suggestions if you have a Charnwood Forest location in mind that you think would be a great place to hold a meeting.

Skills required:

All welcome, though some prior knowledge of wildlife identification advantageous.

Hours required:

• Generally on Tuesdays, but also the occasional Monday and Saturday
• Usually 10am-2pm
• Dates running through to the end of May 2025

Here at the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust we are looking to grow our team of volunteers that can help out with the events we have scheduled or are planning.

The events can be anything from helping to represent the trust at community or business events, going on guided walks, delivering leaflets, making tea at supporter events or helping with craft activities.

If you are interested then please do get in contact. We will add your name to the pool and contact everyone on the list about upcoming events you can help with.

To have a chat about this volunteer opportunity, or what it might involved, please contact our head office: 0116 262 9968

Imagine a wilder world on your doorstep, with more nature everywhere in both rural and urban areas! This is our vision for Leicestershire and Rutland, and we need you to be a part of it. Will you help us bring nature back and create a wilder future - for nature, for climate and for people?

Take Action with Team Wilder!

Imagine the difference it would make if a third of all gardens, school and office grounds, farmland, road verges and parks were all working for wildlife – not against it!

Team Wilder is a growing community of people from across our city, two counties and beyond, who are taking direct action for nature.

Anyone can be part of Team Wilder by taking even just 1 action for nature. From families to farmers, school children, community groups, local councils, businesses, land owners – people from all walks of life in our region are getting involved. If you’re already taking action for wildlife, you’re part of Team Wilder right now!

What actions can I take?

There is so much you can be doing to help our wildlife thrive.

• Pick up litter on your next walk
• Install a bird box in your garden
• Get together with workmates to create an office wildlife garden
• Leave part of your lawn unmown and grow wildflowers
• Join like-minded neighbours to lobby your MP to stand up for nature
• Join a local wildlife group
• Tag #teamwilder in your social media posts when you do an action for wildlife
• Become a member of your local Wildlife Trust
• Cut a hole in your fence to make a hedgehog highway

A full range of ideas about what actions you can take can be found here: https://www.lrwt.org.uk/actions

Map your wild actions

Combining our individual actions can create positive changes in the wildlife around us. Pin your action taken on our Interactive Map

Map your wild actions

Find out more about Team Wilder: https://www.lrwt.org.uk/team-wilder

Whats Involved:

We are looking for someone, or a couple of people, who would be willing to put up the monthly WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) information posters each month in some of the Egleton bird hides.

There are four hides where the posters are put up (Plover, Bittern, Shoveler, and Lapwing), with each hide having two posters that need to be clipped onto the notice boards.

An email is sent out to let volunteers know when posters are ready, which is usually around the middle to the end of each month. Posters are left in the Anglian Water Birdwatching Centre for the volunteers to pick up. There is no set ‘time limit’ to when the posters need to be put up, just at the earliest convenience.

This role would involve a walk through the reserve, taking around 1.5/2 hours.

Skills Required: 

No training or skills required

Hours Required:

Months required: Year round
Days required: Flexible, but one day per month
Hours required: 2 hours maximum 

Location:

Egleton Nature Reserve, Rutland Water