Urban Naturalist

Do you have naturalist field skills in either plants, insects or mammals?

Would a job based on a SSSI nature reserve on Tyneside excite you?

Do you seek a busy schedule engaging people to inspire wonder in urban wildlife?

If your answers to all three questions are ‘yes’, then please read on….

What’s a day in the life like for NHSN’s Urban Naturalist?

Based at NHSN’s wonderful Gosforth Nature Reserve, you are NHSN’s ‘shop door’ for people of
wide-ranging interests and abilities in natural history. You are shaping a busy programme of
community engagement, helped by a friendly team of skilled and enthusiastic volunteers,
engaging people in noticing and recording nature in the surrounding urban wildlife corridors.
You are inspiring individuals, families, school and university learners, community groups and
businesses. You are helping manage the nature reserve and using social media daily to interpret
local urban wildlife.

Why choose NHSN?

Inspiring wonder in nature in the North East for almost 200 years, you might not have heard of us. We
are a local independent charity formed in 1829 and until 1959 welcomed people to our Great
North Museum Hancock which we lease to Newcastle University managed by TWAM, and still home to
the NHSN office. Since 1959, NHSN engages people with nature through field trips, talks, NHSN
citizen science, publications, social media, Gosforth Nature Reserve, support for young
naturalists and more recently using all this to engage people in taking action to address the
climate and ecological crises.

Can you inspire wonder in the natural world?

As a naturalist you bring good natural history field skills in either plants, insects or
mammals, as well as great interpersonal skills to engage people with a wide range of interests
and abilities in natural history. Your personal and professional qualities support NHSN’s way
of working which include being welcoming, enthusiastic, flexible, agile, and locally focused.
Your schedule will be busy, and to engage a wide range of people you will need to be organised
and calm, show initiative and persistence, be motivated and inspiring.

What guides your work?

You are helping deliver the ambitions of the Reece Foundation’s Ouse Burn Way and NHSN’s Action
for North East Nature. You are leading the development of NHSN’s ‘reserve without walls’
approach, based on eco-museum thinking, which engages people in noticing and valuing wildlife
and wilder places in their communities.

Please see further information in the Urban Naturalist Recruitment Pack.