Volunteers Needed

If you enjoy using NatureSpot, could you volunteer to help?

NatureSpot is a registered charity and run by volunteers with contributions from many people. There are many tasks that need to be done and which would suit people with varying time to offer and different skills and interests. Working on NatureSpot is a great way to learn more about British wildlife, as well as knowing that you are helping to grow our scientific knowledge and contributing to conservation.

Here are some of the ways you could help. There isn't a minimum time commitment, we would appreciate whatever time you want to give. You can access the admin pages of NatureSpot from your own computer so you can lend a hand whenever it suits you.

Image Editor

All the species images shown on NatureSpot are selected from those submitted by recorders. Images are  stored on the admin page for each species and can then be selected to appear on the page with one representative image typically chosen to represent that species in the galleries. The choice of images aims to help visitors with identification, ideally showing different aspects, such as flowers, leaves and seeds or males, females and juveniles. Key ID features are always good to include. You get to choose from all images for a given species and just drag and drop them into position. New records and images are added every day but we don't have time to constantly review the display. You can work with just the wildlife group you are interested in or have a roving role across all the galleries.

Verifyer

Every submitted record has to carefully checked to ensure the identification is correct. If you have a good knowledge of any particular group we could use your help! There are experts to turn to for help so it is important to only verify those records you are confident about and to leave any that you aren't sure about.

Fundraising

We are constantly wanting to improve our website but there is a cost to development work. We also have to cover maintenance, web hosting and other admin costs. We have lots of ideas for fundraising but not enough time to pursue them! Could you help?

Publicity

We have leaflets and publicity material but it needs to get out there! Could you help to promote NatureSpot to both local naturalists and the wider public? There are always interesting finds and photos that could be used to raise NatureSpot's profile through the news media, community newsletters, etc. Could you help?

Species Information

There are over 5,000 species featured on our website, each needs good information about how to recognise it, where to find it, life history, links to further information, etc. If you can help add to the text we have for any group or species then let us know.

Species ID Aids

We have a new feature on our species pages - a section called ID Aids (hidden when not in use). We want to develop simple guides that show to identify that species from others that look similar. If you know the key features to look for, could you put a simple guide together? You can use any photos on the website, perhaps to make a comparison, and/or you might want to annotate an image or two pointing out the features to look for. We can discuss this more with you if you are interested.

Parish Editor

We have dedicated parish pages for a growing number of Leicestershire parishes. Each can be edited by a volunteer in that parish. We want to keep these parish pages regularly updated and promoted to the local community.

Wild Place Editor

We can set up any publicly accessible open space as a 'Wild Place' if it has wildlife interest. If we haven't got your local patch set up let us know and you can help to populate the content with local records and news stories. If you would like to help us expand the range of Wild Places on the website, there is always a list waiting!

News Editor

The news story column needs regular additions. The 'new species' and 'what's around' features need refreshing every few weeks. The events listing needs adding to....

Young Recorders

Are you interested in helping to encourage young people under 16 to engage with wildlife? We have developed a Young Recorders scheme but need someone to help promote and develop it, for example with schools, scout/guide groups.

If you are interested in helping with any of these, or have other skills that could help, please get in touch at info@naturespot.org.uk

Thank you.