Intern (ROLE 1 - Biodiversity Monitoring & Surveying; ROLE 2 - Reserve Visitor Engagement)

We are looking for volunteer interns for TWO different, exciting roles for summer 2024 to help us to with biodiversity monitoring and visitor engagement and wildfire prevention. Our internships help people gain the skills and experience needed to start a career in conservation. You will get to meet new people and help save nature too.

Interns bring in a variety of ideas, experiences and energy into our teams, it's so much more than just getting work done; we want to hear from you if you feel like you have the motivation and passion to save nature.

What you will be doing as a Volunteer Intern can be varied, and we aim to give you a broad range of experiences and opportunities to learn, but these roles are specifically aimed at supporting Reserve staff to deliver specific reserve objectives during our busy summer months. These two roles will focus on:

ROLE 1 Reserve biodiversity monitoring - assisting reserve staff to deliver their annual biodiversity research & monitoring. During the summer months, we are actively involved in some of the following:

• Water vole surveys
• Annual bird surveys (breeding waders, dippers, ring ouzel, woodland species, raptors etc.)
• Fungi surveys
• Butterfly surveys
• Ring ouzel surveys

We are looking for ONE individual to assist with some or all of the monitoring work and manage and train volunteers on survey days Monday to Fridays with the odd weekend day for 2-3 days per week.

The skills and experience that you will need may include: Essential:

• Good bird ID skills
• Interest in research
• Interest in birds, and nature in general
• Working with volunteers

Desirable:

• Experience of Brown & Shepherd wader surveys and/or woodland point counts
• Experience or knowledge some/all of other species monitoring methodologies and ID skills, such as butterflies, bumblebees, dragonflies, etc.

Role 2 Visitor engagement - As an attractive and accessible site close to urban areas, Dove Stone attracts a large number of visitors throughout the year, which creates opportunities to engage with them as well as responsibilities around managing them. We are looking for ONE intern to be involved on the visitor side of the team; you will assist with running public activities and events, particularly around a wildflower planting project which the RSPB are delivering in partnership with Ella’s Kitchen. The other main area of work will be around supporting our Fire Ranger to minimise the risk of wildfires by carrying out regular patrols to spot and report issues, remove litter and speak to visitors. There will also be opportunities to help with outreach events in the community. The key skills/experience required: Essential: People person; friendly disposition; confident communicator; enjoy interactions with others Reasonable level of physical fitness Interest in/passion for nature and conservation work and in sharing this with others

Desirable:

• Previous experience of helping with public facing events/visitor engagement work
• Some knowledge of bird/plant/insect id and enthusiasm to learn, knowledge does not need to be in-depth

The other skills you'll need for BOTH roles

The aim of our internships is to help build skills and to help people gain the experience necessary to help take steps towards a career, primarily in conservation. We are looking for individuals who are interested in saving nature and with the energy to learn. We are not looking for experts in conservation, or even people with lots of experience, if you are new to the sector, changing careers or looking for a new challenge, this could be for you.

Some desirable skills include:

• Basic IT skills
• Experience spending time outdoors in nature
• Communication skills
• Planning and organisational skills

This role is suited to someone looking to change their career, or someone who is just starting out. If you want to work in nature conservation, internships are volunteering opportunities that are created around your needs as much as the needs of the RSPB. You will have a say in your own development, you can work with your line manager to develop the skills you need. You will learn all about how environmental charities work to save nature and start to figure out what are of work is most suited to you.

You will be working as part of a wider team and will have the opportunity to work with lots of different people.