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.