General Information: 

Herefordshire Wildlife Trust is a member of The Wildlife Trusts, a nationwide network of local trusts that work to protect wildlife in town and country. Through their care of a network of nature reserves and a range of other conservation and education activities, The Wildlife Trusts are striving for a UK richer in wildlife. Volunteers are vital not only to practical conservation tasks but also the administrative work that is required to support and promote membership, management of reserves, project work and events.  

Bartonsham Meadows is our newest reserve, right in the heart of Hereford. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, our ‘Restoring Bartonsham Meadows’ project aims to restore half the site to species-rich floodplain meadows. Understanding water and soil is important to the management of floodplain meadows, so monitoring these changes over time can greatly inform how we manage the meadows. To do this we have installed nine dipwells (tubes in the ground from which you can measure water levels) across the site and rely on volunteers to monitor these and contribute to data collection. 

In this role you will be measuring and recording the water level in several dipwells. The time commitment for this role is flexible – volunteers will be put into a rota and asked to monitor the dipwells on any day during their week of the month. 

Main tasks: 

• Measuring the water level in several dipwells, once a month.
• Recording this data. 

Skills/Qualities  

• Interest in meadows but no knowledge or previous experience needed.
• Can commit to one day per month.
• Happy to be outdoors whatever the weather.
• Friendly and enthusiastic.
• Confident working independently.  

Training 

The Volunteer will receive an initial induction to the Trust. They will receive any further training required for the role as well as the opportunity to attend ad-hoc training alongside other volunteers. 

Confidentiality 

The volunteer may sometimes have access to sensitive or embargoed information on business issues. The Volunteer is expected to respect confidentiality and exercise discretion where necessary in line with our volunteering policies.