As it approaches its 125th year, the charity that nurtures our national treasures is looking for fresh skills. With ambitious goals such as returning land to nature and fighting climate change, the National Trust is looking for specialists who can bring hedgerows back to life and revive intensively farmed fields. It’s seeking new insights to farming, nature, environmental science, engineering, and more.
“No other organisation has anything like the ambition we have in delivering new and restored habitats,” says Mark Harold, Director of Land and Nature at the National Trust. “Our priority is to bring back the natural beauty of our most important landscapes, and we have huge opportunities for experts who are interested in nature conservation.”
This means more than business-as-usual for the conservation charity, which will also continue to care for woodlands, enhance its flagship properties and maintain landscapes. By investing in new skills, the National Trust aims to tackle thorny environmental problems and reverse a decline in wildlife. “This is our response to climate change, to the decline in biodiversity,” says Harold.
By 2025, the National Trust has committed to creating 25,000 hectares of new habitats on its own land – this represents roughly 10% of all it owns – and the Head of Nature Conservation and Restoration Ecology will steer this ambition. “Get the habitats right and the species will survive.”
For years, the UK countryside has suffered a double blow of intensive farming and the damaging effects of climate change. During the last half century, some 60% of UK species have declined and natural habitats have been lost.
The National Trust completely recognises the vital part farmers play in managing our countryside and in maintaining healthy soils and water supplies. It is appointing a seasoned farming expert to find new ways of working with the Trust’s 1,500 tenanted farms and introduce a gentler way of farming. This might mean encouraging conversion of redundant farm buildings or paying farmers to coax back native plants and wildlife on unproductive land – an approach under trial that has seen farmers on their hands and knees checking their fields for biodiversity, says Harold.
“We want to be much clearer about why we own our land and how we benefit nature and help the public enjoy it. But we also want to ensure our farming tenants are rewarded for all they do – our new Farming and Innovation Programme Director will build relationships with farmers and liaise with land management and nature and science teams to help new farming activities dovetail into existing programmes.”
There’s a further opportunity for a new expert in agricultural ecology to work with tenant farmers “to ensure their farms are as good for wildlife as they can be”, says Harold. This might mean allowing field margins to flourish or farming less intensively. “I’m hugely encouraged,” says Harold. “This isn’t wildlife or farming – it’s definitely wildlife and farming.”
There are also new openings for a Terrestrial Ecologist and a Head of Trees and Woodland, who will care for the millions of trees in the National Trust’s woods and parklands – some ancient, some under threat from impending climate change and disease. The Trust is also on the lookout for expertise in climate science, sustainable resources and creating a low-carbon economy.
When the government announced a 25-year environmental plan last year, conservation and wildlife charities welcomed it but wanted more. Already, the National Trust is on track to cut energy use by 15% by 2021 and generating 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2021. And the National Trust is collaborating with charities such as the RSPB and the Woodland Trust, as well as the government, national parks authorities and even utilities companies, to discover how best to restore and safeguard future landscapes. “For the National Trust, partnerships are a natural way of working,” says Harold.
Within the National Trust’s land and estates team, the search is on for a Civil and Structural Engineer and a Quantity Surveyor, who can work with unique land and property. A new Facilities Manager with an enticingly broad remit will tackle the complexities of maintaining some 28,000 precious individual properties, while a new leader in skills and crafts will help carry traditions on in the 21st-century.
Ensuring new audiences – beyond the National Trust’s 5.5 million own members – benefit from the natural heritage is the motivation behind every new role, says Harold.
“New research says 20 minutes walking through a beautiful place can cut our stress levels,” says Harold. “We know everyone benefits from what nature has to offer.”
All these new roles require professional skills, but the National Trust wants more. “If you care about heritage, or wildlife, or the environment, I would see us as a really good employer of choice. There is a core set of values among our employees that leads them to use their professional skills to benefit our heritage. That’s what you tend to see at the National Trust – a very high commitment to the cause, which is looking after special places, for everyone, for ever. And not to forget the incredibly high staff satisfaction scores and the fact that it is fun to work with such a committed and energetic bunch of people.”
