The Harrow Nature Conservation Forum is seeking an assistant warden for Bentley Old Vicarage. The position would be initially for four months, at the end of which both parties would decide whether to continue.

Bentley Old Vicarage Nature Reserve is a small site north of the Uxbridge Road in Harrow Weald. It comprises mature oak and ash woodland interspersed with cherry, willow and other species as well as two small areas of grassland. A well developed woodland understorey allows many bird species including blackcap to nest. Together with the churchyard of All Saints’ Church to its immediate south the reserve forms a quiet oasis off the busy road.

Members of the warden team take time getting to know the site and then take responsibility for its management and for interaction with the public. Collectively the warden team, together with the Biodiversity Officer and the Public Realm manager from Harrow Council, together with other external bodies, create the strategy for managing the site. Management has two strands, maintenance of the present ecological structure (for example, by mowing the grassland areas to prevent succession to scrub) and carefully planned improvements (for example, we intend to create a pond in the southeast corner of the reserve).

Specific roles and responsibilities include:

• Spending time on the site, getting to know the paths, plants and animals.
• Participation in the creation of management plans.
• Attendance at and supervision of the regular volunteer working parties at the site. There is a working party on the first Saturday of every month that carries out low scale maintenance of the site such as picking up litter and cutting back ivy and bramble that would otherwise impede the paths. The supervising warden is responsible for all aspects of the event including safety. The chief warden, James Mercer, usually supervises but in time the new volunteer would be expected to supervise occasionally. The Forum has generated generic risk assessments that can be adapted for specific working party tasks.
• Contact with the public. Wardens should talk to members of the public about the site and distribute leaflets. They should encourage good behaviour and, where possible and safe, discourage bad behaviour such as lighting fires and leaving rubbish. Where direct intervention would be unsafe, wardens should call from help from the Harrow Weald Safer Neighbourhoods Police Team or, for immediate help, call 999.
• Attendance at reserve committee meetings, which are held every second month, usually on Wednesday evenings at the council Day Centre immediately adjacent to the site.
• Attendance at Harrow Nature Conservation Forum meetings, which are held three times a year, usually on Tuesday evenings at the Civic Centre, Station Road.
• Assistance with stalls at public shows and other profile raising events.

Opportunities will be provided for wardens to be trained in identification of specific plant or animal groups and in the use of horticultural equipment such as brush cutters and chain saws, leading to vocational qualifications including LANTRA and NPTC.

For more information, contact James Mercer on jamesjmercer@mac.com, Betty Brown on 020 8954 3180 or Stephen Bolsover on admin@harrowncf.org.