_0.jpg "Young fundraisers - Lisa Letheren")
Young fundraisers - Lisa Letheren
Whatever your time, whatever your skill, whatever your interest; you can help us and help your local wildlife as a result!
Events and Activities
Shop and Café
Working with Visitors
Working with Children and Families
Campaigning and Fundraising
Office and Administration
Conservation volunteers
Wildlife surveys
Events and Activities
We run a whole series of events and activities- see the events guide here. Events range from leading a guided walk, to giving a talk to a community group, or a wild workshop- looking for bats or identifying dragonflies. If you have a love and a passionate for butterflies or an inkling for the best views of birds then maybe you could help run an activity to help others learn and love the wildlife on their doorstep. You’ll need great people skills, enthusiasm and rapport. If you want to lead sessions yourself you’ll also need an awareness of health and safety and to be well organised. Events run regularly at our sites in Doncaster (Potteric Carr), Flamborough Head, Spurn Point and Stirley Farm in Huddersfield. We also run a range of events on other reserves and non-Trust sites- so get in touch to see what’s on near you!
Shop and Café
We currently have a shop and a café at Potteric Carr in Doncaster and we hope to expand this in the future. So, if you’re a gourmet in the kitchen, an expert at chatting to the customers or really good at choosing that essential gift then why not give it a try.
Working with visitors
As well as a whole series of events we run permanent visitor operations at four sites across the region. At Potteric Carr near Doncaster we run a visitor centre and cafe alongside acres of wetlands, woodlands and reedbeds. We have short family trails and quieter longer trails for the more dedicated enthusiast. You could help welcome our visitors, show them wildlife from our watch points and hides or run drop in crafts at the field centre and café.
To the east we have two sites Spurn Point where you can help manage the visitors on this unique and sensitive site and the new Living Seas Centre at Flamborough Head where you can discover the world of marine and coastal wildlife.
We also run Stirley Farm where food, farming and wildlife come to life for visitors of all ages; if you love the wildlife on your doorstep or digging into home grown food why not share your passion with others?
Working with Children and Families
Alongside the events programme which includes a mass of child and family friendly activity, we run family learning projects and environmental education sessions. Could you inspire a child who has never seen a dragonfly before or didn’t know there was more than one kind of tree? If you are great at engaging with children or helping parents to do the same, this is the project for you! We run York, Harrogate, Selby, Hull and Huddersfield.
More formal programmes take place at Potteric carr near Doncaster where children of all ages visit with school to learn about minibeasts, adaptation, ecology and much more. Plus our Living Seas Centre at Flamborough Head is the base for our new and innovative Living Seas work- where if you can’t take the children to the sea, you take the sea to the children! Are you a brilliant teacher? Whether you’ve been in the classroom for 40 years and fancy a new teaching environment or you’re unqualified but with a passion for learning and nature; we’d like to hear from you.
Campaigning and Fundraising
Backing up all of our practical work with trees and toddlers, pensioners and pitch forks is campaigning and fundraising. We can’t secure Living Landscapes without the resources and every reed, spade, pond net and paintbrush costs money. Are you a natural born salesperson? Then help us, because our product is the most genuine you’ll ever try to sell- if you can inspire, enthuse and convey just how crucial it is that we all value nature then you could help us do even more. You could recruit new members outside the supermarket, help ‘sponsor’ a cow at Stirley Farm or shake a tin whilst dressed as a badger!
We also rely on volunteers to help us campaign for changes in policy at local, regional and national level- here you could help us get enough fish scales signed to really show the government how much the marine environment matters to people or film a class of school children sending their message to the prime minister that they want him to help protect nature!
Office and Administration
From basic but essential tasks like photocopying or stuffing envelopes, through to helping with our database, answering the phone and inputting financial records, we rely upon administrative volunteers. It’s not always the most exciting work, but you’ll get to know us really well and your work really will help protect and enhance wildlife. Most opportunities are based in one of our offices; most often at our HQ in York. There might also be occasional opportunities at one of our local offices in Hull, Flamborough, Selby, Doncaster or Huddersfield.
Conservation Volunteers
With over 80 nature reserves across the region there is probably a site near you that needs a helping hand.
You could be working on a river valley, a common, woodland or carr, an old quarry or a newly restored heath. We have sites in the Dales, on the edge of the Moors, woodlands near Leeds, as far west as Hebden Bridge and east as Spurn Point. Take a look here at our reserves map.
You could be coppicing (cutting down) trees, pulling up invasive plants like balsam or knotweed, raking hay meadows, clearing out a pond, litter picking, creating footpaths, building fences, boardwalks or benches, planting trees or wildflowers. You’ll be shown how to do each task and we’ll explain why we are doing it. New volunteers will usually be buddy’d up with an experienced and friendly group member. In some cases you might get the opportunity to be trained in a specific task such as using a brushcutter… and maybe even leading your own work party in time!
Some sites have a regular group which you’d be welcome to join, whereas others have a more roving group that move around from site to site. Sessions are all led by an experienced member of staff or a volunteer leader who is trained in conservation work. Work parties are held on weekdays and weekends, usually from about 10 in the morning until late afternoon.
Come prepared for the outdoors- wear old clothing that you don’t mind getting mucky and hardwearing boots or wellies. In summer you might need sun cream or insect repellent. You’ll need to bring a packed lunch and plenty to drink. We’ll provide all the tools and safety equipment you’ll need and every group has a first aider.
To find out which sites need your helping hand at the moment look at our volunteer opportunities pages - links can be found on the menu to the left.
Wildlife Surveys
The Trust relies upon records and surveys so that we know what wildlife is around and how best to manage our sites and the wider landscape for their benefit. You can help by simply sending in the odd record or you can take part in a more structured survey. We currently survey across the county for birds and have specific surveys taking place on certain reserves and landscapes; such as on the Humberhead Levels or with water voles on the Went in Wakefield. Watch this space for more opportunities coming up soon. You might also be able to use your wildlife knowledge by helping to run an event themed on your favourite creatures- see below.