As a member of the Woodland and Water Team you’ll be helping to manage our woodlands and our off-grid water and sanitation systems, and helping to make improvements around site using our natural resources.

What does CAT do?

CAT’s mission is to inspire, inform and enable humanity to respond to the climate and biodiversity emergency, sharing skills, knowledge, networks and tools to help people create change.

From activities for pre-schoolers through to postgraduate degrees, we work with a wide range of people and organisations to help inspire change across every sector. Key activities include our visitor centre, short courses, school and university visits, postgraduate degrees, information service and Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab – all supported by an incredible network of members and supporters across the UK and beyond.

Click here to learn more

What will you be doing?

As a member of the Woodlands and Water Team, you will be helping to manage a range of habitats around the CAT site and in our neighbouring woodlands, Coed Gwern. You’ll also help to maintain our unique off-grid water and sanitation systems.

Residential volunteers help out from 09:00 to 17:00 five days a week, with breaks, usually working Monday to Friday.

If you’re interested in regular day volunteering, please get in touch to discuss days and times – volunteering@cat.org.uk

Water

CAT is entirely off-grid for all our water and sanitation requirements. As part of maintaining our systems, you will learn about how we filter drinking water from our reservoir using sand filters and UV filters, and how we process our grey and black water using compost toilets and two separate reed bed systems.

This includes:

• Maintenance of CAT’s off-grid water and sanitation systems (e.g. replacing and installing pipes, changing filters, maintaining the reed beds).
• Carrying out a testing regime to establish the treatment effectiveness of systems.
• Looking for areas to improve the effectiveness of the systems.
• Working with other water and sanitation team members to help demonstrate the systems to visitors.
• Help develop interpretation to enable visitors to understand the water story.
• Practical landscape and estate skills, e.g. fence and gate building and installation.

Woodlands

Our woodlands are managed sustainably using low-impact and sustainable techniques, which you will have the opportunity to learn about in addition to developing the required practical skills, helping us to balance the competing demands for biodiversity, woodland products (including firewood and building material), and leisure and educational use.

Please note that this role is quite different between summer and winter.

Summer volunteers tend to work considerably more on infrastructure maintenance and improvements (building benches, installing or repairing fences, footpath management, etc), biodiversity enhancement (surveying, building, and installing bird/bat/dormouse boxes), and habitat improvements (such as meadow scything and rhododendron removal).

Winter volunteers tend to carry out more forestry-related work, mostly assisting with tree felling and processing of woodland products, coppicing, tree planting, and hedge laying.

What does CAT provide?

• Initial and ongoing training as required.
• Support and direction from a Natural Resources Supervisor.
• An environment in which to develop new and existing skills.
• The opportunity to meet new people.
• Free onsite accommodation.
• Free breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• Free CAT membership for a year.
• 40% off most products in our café and shop.
• One free short course plus 50% off a second course.
• A certificate for your contribution to CAT.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for people who:

Essential:

• Want to make a regular commitment to volunteering at CAT.
• Have experience or are comfortable:
  • Working outdoors (whatever the weather).
  • Living with others.
• Are enthusiastic and keen to get stuck in with tasks.
• Are friendly and respectful to others.
• Are reliable and dependable.
• Will follow their supervisors’ instructions and CAT’s policies and procedures.

Desirable:

• Have knowledge, interest or a willingness to learn about sustainability and CAT’s work.
• Have some prior knowledge of site management or conservation (this isn’t essential as all training can be provided).
• Have theoretical and academic skills and are looking to develop practical and experiential knowledge.
• Have plumbing installation experience.

You will also need the following up to date vaccinations and boosters:

• Diphtheria
• Polio
• Tetanus
• Hepatitis A

If you can’t or don’t wish to get any of these, you will be required to sign a disclaimer.

Apply to be a volunteer at CAT