Beat Forester Thetford East

Do you have the experience and enthusiasm to help shape the future of England’s largest lowland
pine forest?

Job description

Forestry England East District is seeking a motivated forester to join our Land Management team
as Thetford East Beat Forester, leading one of four small Beat teams in Thetford forest to
deliver large-scale silvicultural and estate maintenance programmes in a complex forest
environment.

The successful applicant will play a key role in evolving forest management practices to
diversify timber species and sustain production in the future climate, whilst maintaining
SSSI/SPA habitat for rare Breckland fauna and flora and providing countryside access for an
increasing number of visitors.

About Us

East Forest District, covers an area of 35,000 ha from North Norfolk to Brighton; including
Thetford Forest and the outlying beats of Sandlings, Kent, East Sussex, Chilterns and Thames
Chase Community Forest. The District has a varied landholding including the largest lowland
pine forest in England at Thetford, community woodland on the outskirts of London at Thames
Chase, and a range of mixed woodland, many of which are on sites of Ancient Woodland.

There are numerous sites of conservation interest designated across the District, including
Special Protection Areas to conserve the breeding habitat for the Woodlark and Nightjar,
Special Areas of Conservation, Sites of Specific Scientific Interest, Areas of Outstanding
National Beauty, Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland, County Wildlife Sites and Scheduled Monuments.

The District offers outdoor recreation, leisure and wellbeing activities for hundreds of
thousands of people each year at its recreation centres. Forestry England’s freehold estate is
dedicated for open public access on foot, with numerous small carparks and informal access
points.

East Forest District produces around 125,000m3 of timber each year (generating a £7million
income) and has an annual planting programme of around 1million trees. 

Job Summary

Within their geographic beat, a Beat Forester represents Forestry England and ensures that the
nation’s forests demonstrate exemplar standards in the sector.

Through close collaborative working with colleagues across the organisation, Beat Foresters
identify local priority actions that meet our commitments to nature, society, and the economy.
They draw these into a Beat Delivery Plan, allocating staff time and budgets to achieve work
programmes effectively and efficiently, and monitoring progress and outcomes. 

In addition to managing planned work, Beat Foresters frequently need to react to unexpected or
unusual situations that arise; organising a response that complies with our procedures and
achieves the best outcome, for example liaising with emergency services to prevent and control
forest fires, dealing with hazardous trees, or clearing up fly-tipped hazardous waste.

This post is based at the Santon Downham Office near Brandon, Suffolk. Meetings and training
events may take place in other parts of the country. 

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
out-of-hours on-call availability at times.