KATE MARTIN: Hello and welcome to the National Trust Podcast.
In this mini episode, we'll be meeting Sabine Nouvert, a
National Trust ranger in Beddgelert who's working hard on
a rather unusual project... Conserving seaside butterflies
in inland Wales.
SABINE NOUVERT: We've just entered Hafod Garregog Nature
Reserve. It's pretty boggy, so watch your step. So we're going
to walk through it and I'll take you to a spot where I normally
count the butterflies in July and August. And I get to tell
you why they're such a special species.
Some of us in the team here would call this, the Jewel in
the Snowdonia Portfolio for National Trust. It's really one
of our favourite spots. That's because of the wildlife that's
found here, but also because of all of the plants and the
landscape. So we have like the famous mountains around us in
the, in the background and then closer is all the oak woodland.
And then this mosaic of bogs and you just feel like you're in the
middle of a, like a, a naturalist candy store or
something.
Where we are is like, it's a mixture of bog with a special
bush that grows in the bog called Bog Myrtle. And then in
the bog, there's all these hills of, covered in heather and
scattered birch and oak trees and, and this spot used to be,
it was coastal, in the olden days and then about 105 years
ago or something like that. They built a cob wall, closer to the
sea and they've claimed all of this land. So we're now inland.
But a good 100 years ago, this would have been a coastal site.
We would be on the shore. So we're standing on like a a rocky
hill and so we would have been, we would have been on the shore.
The Silver Studded Blues are tiny, little small blue
butterfly and they've got a really pretty a lacy white edge
to the under underside of their wings with a very intricate
pattern on the underside of its wings that looks a bit like a
white lacy edge to it.
Well, the silver studded blue butterflies are very important
in the UK. They're red data book species. So that means they're
endangered. So what's unique about the population that we
have here is that they're inland. We think that this
population is, is a remnant population from when this was a
coastal site.
It's a bit deep here. Be careful.
Basically, the butterflies need the bog which has lots of
different plants flowering and the butterflies feed on the
nectar from all those flowers in the summer and when they've done
that, they can then lay their eggs on the dry hills on the
heather. And so they need the bog for the nectar and they need
the dry hills to lay their eggs.
Meanwhile, the bog is at threat of getting overgrown with bushes
and tall grasses. So us, as land managers, we've brought in cows
to graze the bog and they do a really good job at that. That
means we've got lots of flowers for the butterflies in the bog.
The problem is that they go up on the dry hills to rest and
then they trample the eggs and the grubs of the butterfly. So
they can cause a lot of damage to the butterfly population just
by trampling their eggs even though they're benefiting them
by maintaining the flower rich bog. And we have to find a
balance. It's just this complicated balance of getting
the bog in good condition with the cattle grazing and, and the
whole habitat for the butterflies in good condition.
So it's, it's just a tricky balance that you're always
manipulating and playing with.
KATE MARTIN: Thanks for listening to this week's
National Trust mini episode. In next week's mini, we'll be
hearing the tale of two dragons who you may encounter on a walk
around one of Beddgelert's accessible paths.