Senior Farm Environment Adviser

FWAG SW is seeking a experienced and knowledgeable Senior Farm Environment Adviser to join our Somerset team. You will have a broad range of skills and experience including practical experience, either on farm or in a nature conservation setting, and can engage with, and help facilitate, our farmers and landowners in a knowledgeable, experienced and trustworthy way.

FWAG SW works with a wide range of stakeholders and provides environmental advice to farmers on a variety of agricultural, conservation, soil and water management, and future farm resilience issues. This post provides advice in a whole-farm context considering habitat and species conservation, diffuse pollution mitigation, soil management, nutrient management, compliance to legislation and regulation, protection of archaeological features and landscape value – all as part of a profitable farm business. Advice is provided through in-person farm visits, reports, events and workshops, plus the preparation of articles for FWAG SW farmer members.

As well as providing advice, you will contribute to the development and delivery of projects and seeking opportunities to provide specialist support, project management and partnership working. You will be supported by other experienced Advisers and Team Leaders across the county. There may also be the opportunity to lead and manage a small team.

Our Somerset team deliver several projects supporting water quality within Somerset’s rivers. One of our projects is the Hills to Levels project working across the whole of Somerset. This is a holistic catchment management approach across Somerset, aiming to ‘slow the flow’; reducing flood risk and erosion, improving the water quality and delivering wider environmental benefits and increasing resilience on the floodplain. The Hills to Levels project is part of the delivery of the land management workstream of the Somerset 20-Year Flood Action Plan, funded by the Somerset Rivers Authority. We advise farmers, landowners and communities through the delivery of 1:1 farm visits, community events, management plans, soil and nutrient management plans, workshops, farm demonstrations or walks and newsletter articles. We initiate, design and oversee the implementation of Natural Flood Management (NFM) and land management measures, where appropriate, to hold and slow the flow of the water, support soil infrastructure and habitat restoration/creation while increasing biodiversity.

We welcome applications from a wide range of backgrounds within the sector, whether that is environment and wildlife, soils, nutrients, farm infrastructure, farm management, cropping, livestock, Integrated Pest Management or NFM. We are an open and inclusive organisation seeking to improve the diversity of our workforce.