Bison and Conservation Grazing Rangers x2

Salary Up to £27,000 per year dependant on skills and experience

Location Blean, Canterbury (West Blean)

The vacancy

Contract type: Permanent

Hours: Full time

Closing Date: 23rd April 2023 at 5pm

Interview Date: - TBC

Globally and nationally wildlife is in steep decline. We appear to be reaching critical tipping points around the loss of biodiversity as well as around climate change, both being interlinked. Human society cannot prosper without wildlife and healthy ecosystems.

Kent’s wildlife needs to be restored to much higher levels. We can no longer allow common things to become rare. We can only do this by restoring large-scale habitat from degraded land. Doing this will contribute to solving global problems. But we won’t be able to do this unless we publicly aspire to a higher level of impact and show that we can deliver this.

The Wilder Blean Project is an exciting project which looks to manage large parts of the West Blean and Thornden Woods at a landscape scale using principles of wilding management. These two roles will join two other Bison and Conservation Grazing Rangers who form an integral part of the wider project team, with the specific purpose of looking after and managing a small herd of bison within approximately 200ha of Blean Woods and additionally to manage the rest of the conservation gazing animal’s including Exmoor ponies, Longhorn cattle and Iron age pigs . The bison must be kept in as wild a state as possible in order for them to display their natural behaviour and have the greatest positive impact on the site, therefore careful and sympathetic management will be essential to the fulfilment of this role.

Training will be provided, which will involve spending time with ARK Naturr Ontwikkeling at several of their sites in the Netherlands. This will provide the necessary specific skills and understanding to manage free ranging bison in the Wilder Blean Project which are currently unavailable in the UK.

The Kent Wildlife Trust Group is Wild About Inclusion. To us, this means inspiring, empowering and engaging people from all backgrounds, cultures, identities and abilities, to change the natural world for the better.

It also means cultivating inclusive workspaces that are free from discrimination, where differences are celebrated, everyone can be themselves and flourish, just like nature!

Who we are

Kent Wildlife Trust is the leading conservation charity for the county of Kent. Wildlife is in crisis. The natural world isn't just something for us to enjoy; it sustains us. the decline of nature puts our very survival and prosperity under threat. It doesn't have to be like this. Our vision is for a better, wilder future. We engage with politicians, business leaders, landowners, communities and people in order that we can all work together to protect wildlife.

Working with us

What we do