Beat Forester

Join us. We’re foresters, professionals and experts. We are a passionate team who love to share our enthusiasm and want to make a positive difference for you and the environment.

Together, we’re using our scale and expertise to grow the nation’s forests for everyone. We’re already adapting our landscapes for tomorrow, and getting stuff done today, like creating amazing places and experiences for you to enjoy. We’re providing vital homes for wildlife, making our air cleaner to breathe and producing sustainable timber.

What you’ll do…

As one of the four Thetford Beat Foresters, you will play a key role in evolving our forest management practices – diversifying tree species to sustain timber production under future climate conditions, maintaining SSSI/SPA habitats for rare Breckland fauna and flora, protecting our unique heritage and providing extensive access to the countryside for an increasing number of visitors.

At Thetford Forest, we work at a landscape scale. The 20,000 hectare forest is divided into four beats, each producing a share of the forest’s 85,000m³ typical annual timber harvest and contributing to the up to 1million tree-planting programme.

The Beat Forester plans and organises forest operations, preparing large-scale silvicultural and estate maintenance programmes and ensuring they’re delivered safely, on-time and to exemplar professional standards.

In addition to managing planned work, Beat Foresters frequently need to react to unexpected or unusual situations (for example wildfires, windblown trees), quickly organising a response which complies with procedures.

If this job advert has inspired you to consider turning a passion for forests and trees into a career, but you don’t yet have the technical knowledge required for this role, you will find information about routes into forestry and qualifications on the Royal Forestry Society and tree work on the Arborictultural association websites.  You may also find opportunities to gain experience through volunteering.

Please see the attached document for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

This post is based at the Santon Downham Office near Brandon, Suffolk IP27 0TJ. 

A Beat Forester is a management role, so you can expect to spend part of most days in the office, but you must also be prepared to work outdoors in all seasons and be able to walk across rough ground with obstacles.

The standard working pattern is 44 hours a week 7am Monday to Friday but the operational pay and responsibilities of the role require flexible working to meet the needs of the team, and for you to be available on-call out-of-hours at times.

Sometimes meetings and training events will take place elsewhere in the country, which may require overnight stays.

Benefits

Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.

• 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
• STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
• free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
• a commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.

Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.

How to Apply

Please head to the Forestry England website for full job details and to apply.