Works Supervisor - Habitat Restoration

What you’ll do…As works supervisor you will support the restoration officers to plan and manage the delivery of our landscape-scale habitat restoration programme with funding from the New Forest Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme. The work programmes focus on restoring and enhancing internationally important heathlands, species-rich grasslands, woodlands and wetlands in the New Forest.

Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

This post is based at

Kings House, Lynghurst, SO43 7NH.

The duties of this post require the applicant to travel to remote locations that are not accessible by public transport. You will therefore need to hold a full current driving licence that enables you to drive in the UK. We are willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by any other means. A Forestry England vehicle can be made available for business use only.

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

• Assist restoration officers in planning work programmes and setting up and managing operational contracts to deliver habitat restoration in the New Forest. Restoration projects will vary from heathland, mires and bogs to ancient woodlands, wood pastures and riverine habitats across the New Forest.
• Carry out day to day site supervision of staff and contractors engaged in habitat restoration works, maintaining high standards of delivery. This may include contractors delivering the works as well as ecological and archaeological specialists. Main operations to supervise will include stump shearing, rake and burns, forestry drain infills, tree felling and extraction, bracken management and invasive species clearance. There may also be opportunities to supervise wetland restoration which could include bed level raising and re-meandering of previously modified watercourses.
• Monitor health and safety practices of contractors and Forestry England staff to ensure high standards of safety. Assess risk assessments and ensure contractors are following FISA guidelines, Forestry England’s H&S policies and safe working practices.
• Take appropriate measures if there are concerns for safety, standards of work or breach of contracts. Keep up to date records of site supervision for all live contracts. You will also monitor any incidents / near misses on active sites which may need additional safety measures implementing. Recording and actioning quickly and efficiently any challenges on site to ensure contractors can continue delivering work.
• Manually install site safety signage for active work sites, and ensure signs are removed once redundant.
• Build and maintain excellent professional relationships and communications with Forestry England staff, contractors, stakeholders and members of the public, to maximise effective delivery of the works.
• Assist the restoration officer with creation of contract maps, habitat mapping and other administrative tasks as required.

The duties of this post require the applicant to travel to remote locations that are not accessible by public transport. You will therefore need to hold a full current driving licence that enables you to drive in the UK. We are willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by any other means. A Forestry England vehicle can be made available for business use only.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

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A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.