Job

Trees for Life: Beaver Management Officer

Rewilding charity in Scotland seeks candidate to facilitate the return of beavers to the Highland landscapes, ensuring positive coexistence with people.

Beaver
Photo by Niklas Hamann on Unsplash

The Trees for Life vision is of a revitalised wild forest in the Scottish Highlands, providing space for wildlife to flourish and communities to thrive. Their mission is to rewild the Scottish Highlands by enabling the restoration of the globally unique Caledonian Forest which once covered much of Scotland. Integral to our success is the involvement of people.

The focus of this new role is facilitating coexistence, particularly in Glen Affric, where work is underway to enable a beaver release next spring. The candidate requires an understanding of beaver ecology and behaviour, as well as landowner and community concerns about the potential impacts which beavers can have on agricultural land, property and infrastructure. It will take a hands on and practical approach to addressing those concerns effectively, so the role requires both practical technical skills, the ability to build relationships with a wide range of stakeholders and adapting plans and priorities in response to feedback from a range of sources.

Initially with a focus on the proposed translocation of beavers to Forestry and Land Scotland ground in Glen Affric, the post will ensure that the beaver population is monitored, establish positive working relationships with the local community and complement the work of NatureScot in delivering the Beaver Management Framework if practical management needs to be implemented.

Additionally, the role will carry out some initial work with communities and landowners to explore the feasibility of returning beavers to other catchments in the Scottish Highlands, outside of the Cairngorms National Park. This will involve developing and implementing effective community consultation and ensuring that adequate habitat and land use risk assessments are undertaken.

  • Salary range: £28,568 – £32,508
  • Three-year fixed-term position
  • Location: Findhorn office/or Dundreggan Estate
  • Deadline for application: Monday 20 November 2023
  • Interviews will take place: W/C Monday 27 November 2023

Full job description and application details here.