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[National Trust Podcast Theme Music]

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Hello and welcome to the National Trust Podcast.

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I'm Kate Martin.

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Lead ranger at Formby in Liverpool.

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And today I'm going back in time.

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Five years ago in season two

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I made my way to the small Snowdonia Village of Beddgelert.

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A short walk from this picturesque town is Hafod Garegog nature reserve,

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which is home to some rather peculiar winged creatures.

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Our story begins deep in the heart of the North

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Wales countryside.

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[Music Starts – Unfinished Business]

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We've just entered

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Hafod Garegog Nature Reserve [SFX - Boggy Footsteps]

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This is Sabine, a ranger for South Snowdonia.

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It's pretty boggy. So watch your step.

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Sabine is leading me

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through a dense, waterlogged landscape,
which is pretty challenging underfoot.

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But among the thigh, deep mud
and scraps of heather are thorny gorse and

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clumps of bog myrtle.

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This bog is enclosed in a
circle of woodland and towering above us

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beyond is the Snowdonia mountain range.

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This place is awesome.

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Some of us in the team here would call
this the jewel in the Snowdonia portfolio.

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It's really one of our favorite spots. [SFX - Bird Song]

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You just feel like you're in the middle

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of a naturalist's candy store.

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One of the creatures
that calls this candy store home is

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the Silver Studded Blue Butterfly.

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Each Year, Sabine has to count
how many of them are in the area

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to make sure that the population
isn't in decline. [Music Ends]

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[SFX- Bird Song] So we're going to spot
where I normally count the butterflies

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and I get to tell you why
they're such special species [Music Starts - Feather Light 6 String]

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[SFX- Insects Moving]
Silver studded blues are a tiny little butterfly,

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and they've got a really pretty lacy white
edge to the underside of their wings.

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The Silver Studded Blue butterflies are an endangered species,
and although they can be found

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around the UK, there are some things
that make this a perfect spot

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for our winged friends. [Music Ends]

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[SFX - Bird Song]
The bog has lots of different plants

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flowering and the butterflies
feed on the nectar from all those flowers.

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And when they've done that, they can
then lay their eggs on the dry

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hills on the heather.

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And it's this unique habitat
that is partly responsible

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for the success of this species
in this tiny pocket of Welsh wilderness.

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But even this perfect habitat for
the butterflies is under threat,

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but not by man or pollution,
but from Mother Nature herself.

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The bog is at threat of getting overgrown
with bushes and tall grasses. [SFX - Plants Rustling]

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To make sure things stay tip top.

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The team have had to
bring in some special help.

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[Music Start - Hush Hush] [SFX - Cows]
Us land managers.

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We've brought in cows.

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It will come as no surprise that cows
are UDDERLY brilliant at grazing.

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The way they eat is by rasping at
the thick grass and vegetation

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with their tongues,
and that tears up the landscape

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to make a perfect spot for butterflies
to nest and lay their eggs.

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They do a really good job at that.

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That means we've got lots of flowers
for the butterflies in the bog.

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But just like our overgrowing plants,
our cows can also cause

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a bit of a headache for the butterflies.
[SFX - Hooves Trotting]

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The problem is
that they go up on the dry hills

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and then they trample the eggs
and the grubs of the butterfly.

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So they can cause a lot of damage
to the butterfly population,

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even though they're benefiting them
by maintaining the flower rich bog.

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It's just this complicated balance
that you're always

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manipulating and playing with.
[Music Ends]

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So why
did the species that needed so much care

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and attention choose this rather
unforgiving landscape as its habitat?

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Well, Silver Studded Blues
have a surprising little secret.

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[SFX - Gulls, Coastal Sound]
This spot used to be coastal

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In the olden days.

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In 1805, a cob
or a seawall was built eight miles away

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to reclaim land for agriculture
and for industry.

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This turned the landscape from a coastal
site into an inland nature reserve.

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We think that this population is

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is a remnant population
from when this was a coastal site.

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Because of the change of environment

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These butterflies need a lot of extra help
to keep their habitat in order. 

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[Music Starts - Exuma]
So five years on,

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I wanted to find out how the butterflies
are faring so far away from the seaside.

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We called up lead ranger
David Smith to find out more.

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[SFX – Phone dialing, Phone being Answered] Hi, David. 
Hi Kate.

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So, David, since we were here in 2017,
how have things been going?

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Since you were last year in 2017?

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The numbers haven't been great,
to be honest. [Music Abrupt Pause – Exuma]

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They're still there, but

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their numbers are pretty low.

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We're not really sure why.
[Music Resumes – Exuma]

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It depends
an awful lot just on the weather.

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It's a

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wetland site and rivers nearby,
so it's always quite humid.

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At the same time,
we're at the foot of the mountain,

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so you've got a mountain influence
as well.

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The temperatures can be fairly extreme,
more extreme than coastal

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a sea as a sort of leveling effect over
in Hafod Garegog it can be very,

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very hot and in the winter
it can get very, very cold. [Music Ends – Exuma]

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[Music Starts – The Streets of Edo]
So what hope is there for the future?

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Is it going to look any better
this time next year, do you think?

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I'm hoping that the work
that we're doing to manage

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the habitat will increase the numbers.

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Obviously, that depends

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to an extent on our management,
but it depends an awful lot

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just on the weather, really.

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With the weather and climate change
causing havoc all around the world,

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we have to find out if these butterflies
have been affected elsewhere.

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So we tracked down
some of their coastal cousins in Devon.

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We called up our ranger in Salcombe
to find out what they do there.

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And her answer was a little bit
more bionic than bovine.

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[SFX – Phone dialing, Phone being answered]
Hi, Emma. Hi, Kate. [Music Ends – The Streets of Edo]

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So a little birdie tells me
you've got some seaside Silver Studded Blues?

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Yeah,
we have a strong population of Silver Studded

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Blue butterflies here on the coast.

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Oh, that's good.

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So are these ones
any different from the ones

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we've just been looking at in Wales?

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The butterflies here in South
Devon are in very different habitat.

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Butterflies are
in their adult form in the summer

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and this habitat is on the lower cliffs.

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They're really good warm

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microclimates, which the butterflies
and lots of other insects survive in.

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I Know what it's like
being on the coast in the winter.

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But those warm microclimates sound
absolutely idyllic.

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So are there other butterflies
there as well? [Music Starts – Ephemeris]

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Yes. So we have lots of different butterfly
species around the area that have,

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you know, flying around and easy
to see from the coastal footpaths.

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The dark green fritillary
is the one of the bigger ones we get,

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so they're really beautiful.

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They almost look slightly orange
when they're flying,

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but they're under wings, have got
like a bit of a green tinge to it.

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And the Red Admiral butterflies are called

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that because they've got a big
red stripes on their wings.

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Theysort of almost look black and white.

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When you see them flying.
And we get butterflies called Peacocks,

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which are quite a sort of maroony
red color, and they have beautiful

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blue dots on them,
which is where they get their name from.

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And then there's other species
which are yellow, like the Brimstone

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butterflies, and we get the crazy
looking Orange Tip butterflies,

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which literally, like someone has dipped,

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the end of their wing into an orange
paint pot.

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We get a lot of those.

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They sound really unusual, but
they're actually quite common. As you come

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up, the butterflies, some of which
will fly around your sort of knee height.

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And some of the other species

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that are bigger and stronger
flyers will be around your head height. [Music Ends - Ephemeris]

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With all those colours, you've painted
an absolutely gorgeous picture

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of what life
is like in Salcombe for the butterflies.

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[SFX – Gulls calling, Coastal Sea Sounds]
The coastal grassland

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itself is full of lots
of different wildflowers around your feet.

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You've got the the yellows and the pinks
and the purples, and then also you've

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because you're walking along the coast
on one side, if you've got that beautiful

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blue sea as well, and hopefully a blue sky
if you get a good day.

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So our little rare Silver Studded,
Blues included in that sea of color.

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They're actually quite tricky to find.

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And you have to go off the beaten track
into the little enclosed areas

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where they have their colonies
on the lower cliffs away from the path.

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They sound like they're quite tucked
away really...

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How do you look after the spots
where they live?

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Well, the habitats that we have well,
anything you want to maintain

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in terms of conservation management
needs, livestock grazing. The area where

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the butterflies are found is fantastic
in that we have quite a mix of livestock.

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[Music Starts – Talk it Out]
Through the winter there's sheep that graze the cliffs

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and they're brilliant

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because they go right down the steep
cliff faces quite happily and they graze

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the shorter areas of grassland

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and keep it short,
which is good for the butterflies.

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We also have herds of cattle

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and in particular we have Highland
cows out there with their big curly horns

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and they always look fantastic
and they do a great job

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because they're a bit
more like bulldozers.

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They sort of bosh through the scrub
and quite happily roam around really,

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you know, sort of dense areas of scrub
and bashing about which

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keeps it under control.

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And then we also have
Dartmoor ponies on the cliffs out there,

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which, again, do a good job.

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at sort of grazing the shorter bits of grassland
and they create nice sort of tussocky

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areas.

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So having that
mix of grazing is really important.

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Ideally, you can't always do it
for various reasons.

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So not too dissimilar
from what they do in Wales then.

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But I've got to be honest, cows and cliffs
don't really sound like a brilliant mix.

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So what do you do to keep on
top of the butterflies habitat

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The closer you get to the sea?
[Music Ends – Talk it Out]

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[SFX – Bird Song, Garden Machinery]
So we use something called a remote flail.

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Remote controls flail or robo flail,

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basically...

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Well, there's different types of them,
but they're a spinning head of metal teeth

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so basically rips through anything scrubby

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and breaks it up into really small,
tiny little pieces. [SFX – Machinery, Plants being cut, Branches Snapping]

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It's a fantastic bit of kit
that's on Caterpillar tracks.

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It's just over a meter wide
and probably just under a meter tall.

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And the machine is used
remotely by an operator

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with a control box,
and they send it off down the cliffs.

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It's got really good grip
and it's not particularly big as well,

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so it's not got too much weight behind it,
which means that you can send it down

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quite steep.

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Cliff faces and the flail then cuts through

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the gorse and blackthorn and shreds it up.
[SFX – Machinery, Chainsaw Plants being cut, Branches Snapping]

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It means that following spring
all of the wildflowers

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and the grasslands can come back in
those areas that have been cut.

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Wow. Well,
with all those great big spinning teeth,

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it sounds like it's going to be more
at home on robot wars.

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But why not just let the sheep
do what they need to do? [Music Starts – Rainbow Land]

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The sheep do a fantastic job, but there's
only so much that they can get onto.

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And they also won't eat the scrubby bushes

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because, you know, they're just feeding
on the grass and the wildflowers.

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Doing that additional flailing,
additional scrub control means that

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we get really good pockets of scrub
among the grassland.

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You can see on cliff areas
where that isn't done, you get these huge

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great banks of scrub, which means that
the light is much more blocked out

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and there's no other things
of surviving underneath it.

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The robotic flail

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has been really revolutionary
for a lot of our conservation management.

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Historically, the...well,
the cutting wasn't done

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or the farmers or contractors
would be in a digger or a crawler

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trying to take it onto steep cliffs,
which is obviously incredibly dangerous.

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So it's just great
having to take away the operator risk.

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And also

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the size of the machine means
that you can really get around

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a little rocky outcrops
and you can get to bits

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that would never have been able
to be controlled before. [Music Ends – Rainbow Land]

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So with all the hard work

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that you, the team
and our cyborg colleagues are putting in,

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how is the future looking like
for the Silver Studded Blues in South Devon?

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[Music Starts – Exponential] We're really pleased that overall
the numbers are going up.

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They've been studied locally since 2016,
I think it is, and they've been surveyed.

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So we've got good data there.

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And the trend is that
they're increasing the

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as with all butterfly species,
they are very affected by the weather.

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So last year we had quite a wet spring.

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The weather was all over the place,
so last year's numbers weren't as good.

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But the overall trend
is an increasing population. [Music Ends – Exponential]

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[National Trust Theme Music Starts]
Thanks for

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listening to this episode of the National
Trust Podcast.

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To find more of our episodes,
go to nationaltrust.org.uk/podcasts,

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follow us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:13,280
And while you're there,
do leave us a review

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and let us know what you think of it.

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We'll be back soon with a new episode.

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But for now, from me, Kate Martin.

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Goodbye. [National Trust Theme Music ends]