Volunteering

Volunteers are fundamental to our vision for elfwoods. We rely on their time, energy and skills in caring for the ecology on site and in managing the everyday running of the organisation. More than this though, our volunteers are central to delivering our goal of growing a community that fosters personal fulfilment, creativity and wellbeing; where people are integral and beneficial members of the woodland ecosystem.

Join the elfwoods community

We run regular volunteer days twice a month on alternating Saturdays and Sundays to focus our volunteers’ efforts on our most pressing projects. To get a taste of what these days involve, check out our latest blog posts. If you enjoy spending your free time in a stunning natural setting engaged in satisfying work with like-minded others, why not join us? Contact us if you’d like to come along to the next elfwoods volunteer day, or subscribe to our mailing list below to find out about future volunteer days: 



    Join our woodland pavilion project team

    Right now we’re rallying for support with activities such as fundraising, volunteer coordination and social media outreach to help us realise our 2022 woodland pavilion project. We’d love to hear from you if you could help us in any way, big or small, so please contact us today to register your interest.

    Other volunteer opportunities

    As well as these regular organised events, we’re always looking for enthusiastic people to join our friendly woodland community. We’re grateful for whatever time you’re able to spare, and we’ll offer you the opportunity to choose tasks that fit your interests. We welcome people from all backgrounds, and no prior experience is necessary – there’ll always be someone around to help lead the way if you’re keen to learn new skills.

    There are many other ways you could get involved volunteering at elfwoods, and we’ve listed some of them below. Volunteering activities need to be pre-arranged to ensure we can accommodate everyone, as parking on site is restricted, so contact us directly if you’d like to participate in any of these.

    Conservation volunteering

    All visitors and workers at elfwoods are encouraged to participate in caring for the ecology on site; whether that be simply through mindful awareness during a visit, or with intention to undertake a specific conservation intervention.

    Conservation activities we carry out range from short-term, one-off volunteering events, to decades-long undertakings, all with the long term aspiration for supporting more sustainable, equitable ways of living in the vicinity and beyond. After a decade of conservation volunteering we can already recognise the resulting improvements in species numbers and richness colonising the land – birds, mammals, insects, heathland plants and fungi.

    Woodland: You could get involved with brashing; rhododendron clearance; planting saplings; protection & care of saplings; fence repairs; footpath clearance & mulching; moving & sorting felled timber; fire safety checks…

    Nature conservation: You could help out with bracken slashing; pulling & burning invasive plants; species monitoring & recording; habitat maintenance…

    Agroforestry: You many be interested in planning & cultivating an elfwoods food forrest; selecting, planting & caring for food shrubs; clearing invasive plants & forest litter; composting; rabbit/deer proofing;…

    Community building projects

    From time to time we may organise community building projects at elfwoods, for which we welcome volunteers.

    Scientific Research

    We support opportunities for citizen science and academic investigation into our ecological aspirations at elfwoods, as well consideration of the potential benefits to wellbeing of our engaged curiosity about Nature.