To find out more about volunteering with UWT, contact our Volunteering Officer, Ian Cardwell, who can talk to you about all of the volunteering possibilities and answer any queries you may have. And remember, if one of these specific opportunities doesn’t suit you but you think that you have skills to offer us then please get in touch and tell us about your interests/skills.
Nature Reserves Volunteer
UWT’s Nature Reserve Team is based at our Headquarters in Crossgar and work throughout Northern Ireland in the Trust’s 20 nature reserves. As a nature reserve volunteer you would assist in the practical management of these nature reserves under the supervision of the Nature Reserves staff. Activities include practical conservation work such as coppicing, tree planting, scrub clearance, path maintenance, fencing, as well as species monitoring. We also have opportunities at the Ecos centre in Ballymena.
Nature Reserves Warden
This role would involve visiting a nature reserve situated close to you on a weekly basis to patrol the site and report back any important goings on such as damage, wildlife sightings and visitor numbers. This is a casual role and could be done whenever suits but really helps us out in terms of ‘eyes and ears’ on our sites!
Wildlife Advice Volunteer
This role is to help with the many enquiries we receive from a range of people including individuals who have wildlife visiting their gardens, through to community groups who would like advice on what practical work they can carry out to improve a local space for wildlife.
Development and Membership Volunteer
There are lots of ways that volunteers can help out in our Development department which carries out a wide range of functions including membership administration, fundraising activities, outreach work, events and publications such as website and press releases. Tasks could include helping with the mail-out of membership publications, keeping the Trust image bank in order, market research, administrative support for membership including filing, compiling membership packs, data input, sending out press releases, representing the Trust at events, and many more!
Wildlife Watch Leader/Assistant Leader
Wildlife Watch groups are clubs for young members of UWT where they go along to discover more about nature and wildlife. Volunteers either lead or assist other leaders with set up of Wildlife Watch group (if new group), arrange meetings (usually monthly), run activities for the group, and keep essential paperwork such as parental consent forms and activity sheets. Essential training and ongoing support is given by UWT, you just need to be enthusiastic about wildlife (You do not need to be an expert) and be able to communicate with children. Candidates must undergo a Protection of Children Check (POC) – this is a check to determine their suitability to work with children
Other Volunteering Opportunities
These above specific opportunities may not suit you but by volunteering your skills and experience, no matter how unrelated it may seem, you will be helping to protect NI’s environment for the future. For example, volunteers’ expertise in things like computing, teaching, digital technology, photography, graphic design, art, accounting, administration and gardening have all made a difference to our work in the past. Why not get in touch to see how your skills could help?
