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

Pear Wood is an area of ancient woodland lying south of Wood Lane in Stanmore. Although the term ancient woodland is applied to any area that has been constantly wooded since 1600, Pear Wood is certainly older and is referred to in a document from 1250. Below the trees grow many plants characteristic of ancient woodland such as wood millet, wood poa, creeping soft-grass, wood and remote sedges, black bryony, hairy wood-rush, tall brome, wood sage and dog’s mercury. Cutting across Pear Wood is the ancient earthwork of Grim’s Dyke. Pear Wood is home to several nests of the Southern Wood Ant Formica rufa, a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species.

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, and Natural England, English Heritage and other external bodies, create the strategy for managing Pear Wood. Management has two strands, maintenance of the present ecological structure (for example, by strimming Grim’s Dyke to prevent growth of trees whose roots would damage to the ancient structure) and carefully planned improvements. In particular, active management of the Southern Wood Ant population includes transfer of populations from nearby sites that are under threat from development, together with the creation of the sunlit glades preferred by this species.

Specific roles and responsibilities include:

• Spending time on the site, getting to know the paths, plants and animals.
• Low scale maintenance of the site such as picking up litter and cutting back branches that are impeding paths.
• Participation in the creation of management plans.
• Supervision of volunteer working parties. Volunteers from the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) perform jobs such as scrub clearance and fence building. They are accompanied by a supervisor who is responsible for safety, transport and refreshments, so the warden’s role is specifically to supervise the work done.
• 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 or damaging the ant nests. Where direct intervention would be unsafe, wardens should call from help from the Cannons Safer Neighbourhoods Police Team or, for immediate help, call 999.
• Liason with scout groups. Local scout groups camp on Scout’s Field immediately south of Pear Wood and help with conservation work in the reserve itself.
• 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 Claire Abbott on <cbga@aol.com> phone: 020 8954 0439 or Stephen Bolsover on admin@harrowncf.org.