Burfa Bog

Anyone who has seen the dazzling display of spring flowers on the Trust's reserve at Burfa Bog near Evenjobb would have to agree that wetlands can be pretty special.

Burfa Bog is also a sanctuary for water vole, which is becoming an endangered species in the UK, and otters frequent the Knobbley Brook that runs through this reserve.

Grid Reference: SO275613 Directions Situated next to the minor road running south-east from Evenjobb to Ditchyeld Bridge on the B4362 north of Walton. From Evenjobb the reserve entrance is on the right 150 metres beyond the turning to Burfa and Barland on the left. Please park by the gate, clear of the bend in the road. The entrance is marked by a reserve sign. Boardwalks allow access through most of the wetter areas of the site. Wellingtons are advisable most of the year. Website www.radnorshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/burfa.htm The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Abercamlo Bog

Further west, another of the Trust's reserves at Abercamlo Bog near Crossgates is home to several unusual plants such as the insect-eating sundew. These grow in pingoes - small, shallow lakes created at the end of the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago which have gradually filled up with peat to become mires.

However havens for wildlife like these are becoming increasingly rare. Wetlands used to spread over large parts of Wales, but now occupy a only fraction of the area that they once covered.

Grid Reference: SO074650 Directions Situated about one third of a mile south of the A44, about 3/4 of a mile west of Crossgates, on the road signposted to Llanyre. This road is opposite Taylor's Tractor garage on the A44. Heading south, the reserve is situated on the left hand side of the road, before Griffiths garage. A track to the left is marked to Abercamlo farm, and a reserve sign and stile entrance can be found a few metres along this track. Please do not obstruct the track when parking. Website www.radnorshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/abercamlo.htm The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Volunteering

Historic drainage for agriculture and development has led to many habitats and species becoming dangerously rare or even disappearing altogether. Widespread drainage also means that heavy rainfall runs off hills and uplands much more quickly than it used to, causing flooding downstream.

In Radnorshire, the Wildlife Trust has an ongoing programme of management to conserve the wetlands in its reserves. Much of this is carried out by a group of conservation volunteers who come from all over the county. Every Tuesday they get stuck into work - sometimes literally if the ground is very wet - under the leadership of the Trust's Reserves Officer, Jonathan Stone.

Gilfach

The Trust has also just received a grant of £2,000 from the Greencard Charitable Trust for a special project, called 'The Rhos Pasture Rescue Project'. Rhos - rough, wet pastureland dominated by purple moor grass - used to be widespread in Mid-Wales, as many place names show. The aim of the new project is to encourage the rare marsh fritillary butterfly back to old rhos pasture on the Gilfach nature reserve near Saint Harmon.

If our grandchildren are to enjoy the wildlife that our grandparents took for granted, then people must be persuaded to think of a bog not as a dreary and useless wasteland, but as a precious natural resource that teems with life."

By Joan Payne, a conservation volunteer with the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust