Volunteer Opportunities

We are looking for new volunteers who have experience in practical tasks such as carpentry, landscaping, and mechanical engineering to join the habitat team at Rutland Water Nature reserve. Rutland Water Nature Reserve is carefully managed to ensure that conditions stay just right for wildlife, taking into account the rising and falling water levels of the reservoir, and other factors like climate change. Each lagoon provides different conditions for different species, and the meadows and woodlands are looked after, too, ensuring that species like nightingales can always make a home here.

Hours required:

Working parties take place every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday between 9.00am and 4.00pm. You are not required to join all days, and we are particularly looking for more volunteers to join the Tuesday group.

Tasks involve:

Practical habitat and reserve infrastructure work using hand tools. Tasks include scrub clearance (cutting and/or grubbing out) mowing and raking, hedge cutting, fence repairs/installation, gate installation.

Skills required:

We are looking for new volunteers who already have practical skills, but specific training will be given for the tasks at hand.

If you are interested in joining the team then please fill out an application form and return it to us. A follow up with a Reserve Officer will then take place.

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

Could you help us maintain our beautiful reserves across the east of Leicestershire and Rutland. We are looking for volunteers to help with all sorts of practical tasks on our reserves. Working parties, led by our Reserve Officers, take place during the week and and if you are interested in joining any of them then please do get in contact.

Hours required:

Working parties take place every Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and the exact day varies depending on reserve.

Each working party is 5 hours long (usually 9.30-2.30 or 10-3 depending on site location).

Tasks involve:

Practical habitat and reserve infrastructure work using hand tools. Tasks include scrub clearance (cutting and/or grubbing out) mowing and raking, hedge cutting, fence repairs/installation, gate installation.

Skills required:

No previous skills required, but please note that tasks are undertaken in remote places with no facilities and the terrain can often be challenging. Any training required will be given in situ or volunteers will be provided with adequate in-house or external training where appropriate, before using equipment.

Location:

“Eastern” reserves

Regular work party days: Monday, Thursday, and Friday

Reserve Officers: Sarah Bedford & Juliette Colaço

• Bloody Oaks Quarry
• Coombs Meadow
• Cribbs Meadow
• Great Merrible Wood
• Holwell Reserves
• Ketton Fields
• Ketton Quarry
• Launde Big Wood
• Launde Park Wood
• Lyddington Meadow
• Merry’s Meadow
• Priors Coppice
• Stonesby Quarry
• Wymondham Rough

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 Mondays and Tuesdays, 2-3 times per month
• Usually 10am-2pm

• Upcoming dates 8^th, 16^th, 23^rd July

• Ongoing each month after these

We are lucky to have a number of office volunteers with us at the moment, however, if you would like to register your interest in case a place became available, please do contact Jo Taylor on 0116 262 9968 or email jtaylor@lrwt.org.uk

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