Country Focus

The rural affairs programme for those working and living in the Welsh countryside.

Since 2007, Fishing for Schools has taken young people out of the classroom and into the countryside but it's more than getting them hooked on fishing. Founded by fly fisherman Charles Jardine it gives children a chance to learn outdoors, connect with nature and gain new skills and confidence. Caroline Evans joins children from Alway primary school, Newport, Gwent at the nearby Llyswerry Ponds for a lesson in Fishing!

The White Hart Inn in St Dogmaels has been part of the village for 250 years, so when last orders was called for the final time, villagers refused to accept the closure of their local. They joined forces to raise nearly £250,000 to buy it and nearly 5 years on it's become a thriving community owned pub... or should that be hub?!

Thanks to our somewhat damp climate, Wales is home to a staggering 850 different species of Bryophytes, representing three quarters of the total number (which is 1100) found in the UK as a whole. Bryophyte is the collective name for a group of plants that include mosses, liverworts and hornworts. This year the British Bryological Society is celebrates its hundreth birthday and has a variety of activities to mark the centenary, including designing a number of moss trails at Treborth Gardens in Bangor; the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire and also one in Harlech, Gwynedd. It's there Pauline Smith explores the wonderful world of bryology and goes "mossing"!

The national call to plant trees to fight climate change requires a good stock supply! This week we're at the largest commercial tree nursery in the UK – selling approximately 35 million trees a year from it's base just outside Wrexham. We've all heard the mantra "the right tree in the right place", well behind that is a lot of research and science. Caroline Evans visits Maelor Forest Nurseries at Bronington, close to the Welsh border, where they are sowing the seeds to success specialising in home grown trees.

Floodplain meadows are a beautiful and natural landscapes that are found alongside rivers on larger flat areas that dry out sufficiently in the summer, through well drained soils. However their value goes way beyond their beauty and wildlife - the many benefits we get include storing floodwaters, keeping soil and nutrients out of rivers and helping to protect water quality. A project is underway to increase our knowledge of Welsh floodplain meadows and promote and conserve them for the future. The Welsh floodplain meadows partnership is focusing on south-east Wales, Carmarthenshire, and the Wye catchment, building connections with communities and organisations working in the floodplain. Caroline Evans meets with members of the project to discover what the work involves and what they hope to achieve.

Rural crime - the cost of crime in the countryside has jumped by 7 percent in Wales according to the latest figures from the rural insurer NFU Mutual. Fluttered away - Butterfly Conservation reports alarmingly low numbers of butterflies, with the weather a significant factor in the decline. Lime Kilns - the Llanymynech Limeworks, closed over a hundred years ago calls for volunteers to help with the restoration work, wildlife surveys and keeping the site open to the public. Mushrooming success in Gwynedd - the grower who's pioneered a method for raising a range of exotic, Lions Mane mushrooms and how a pop-up pastaria, called Pasta a Mano, has quickly gained a cult following for offering authentic Italian Street Food will be competing in next month's British Street food Awards.

The brand new Horticulture Village at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show this year celebrated all aspects of horticulture in Wales from community to commercial growing. Caroline Evans explores the new Village and hears find out what we need to do to produce more fruit, veg, plants and flowers, and deliver greater health and environmental outcomes for the nation, through horticulture.

Competitions, world-class livestock, crafts, countryside sports, shopping, food and drink.... you name it, the Royal Welsh Show has it all! Celebrating the Society’s 120th anniversary this year, there will be special displays, a new horticultural tent and the poultry are back! Kicking off BBC Radio Wales' coverage for the week ahead, Country Focus presenter Caroline Evans is joined by BBC Wales' Environment and Rural Affairs Correspondent, Steffan Messenger to look ahead at this year's "Sioe Fawr"!

Ahead of this year's Royal Welsh Agricultural Show, we talk to the Welsh Government's Climate and Rural Affairs minister, Huw Irranca Davies about policy, farm protests and the future for agriculture in Wales. People are being asked to avoid the River Irfon, near Builth Wells over fears of a suspected case of 'crayfish plague'. The Wye catchment, including the River Irfon, is a key habitat for the white-clawed crayfish. The plague is harmless to humans but it is a highly infectious disease that is fatal to the crustacean that is already under threat from the non native crayfish. We visit a new nature reserve that has just been opened at the Gwent Levels. Bridewell Common was purchased by Gwent Wildlife Trust four years ago, but it has been closed to the public until now, to allow the charity to restore the area. and for our Bird of Conservation Concern this month it's a charismatic and striking bird of prey, that is unfortunately the UK’s most persecuted bird of prey in relation to its population size - the Hen-Harrier

Pembrokeshire Creamery is the UK's first new dairy for 15 years and it's aim is to reduce food miles and increase supply chain efficiency. It will have the capacity to bottle 60 million litres of milk in its initial 12-18 month phase, building to 120 million litres per year when it reaches full capacity. Caroline Evans tours around the facility and through the stages of milk production to find out what this new venture means for the Welsh dairy industry

It once made the finest steel but when Wrexham's Brymbo Steel works closed in 1990 it was a huge blow to the local community but now the historic industrial site is being turned into a remarkable heritage attraction. Sarah Easedale meets the members and volunteers of the Brymbo Heritage Trust and hears about the community's efforts to preserve and celebrate Brymbo's industrial past, conserve a 300-million-year-old fossil forest and provide an area for events and activities

Farming and environmental groups call on politicians to commit to a major increase in funding for the agricultural sector ahead of the General Election. We hear from BBC Wales' Environment correspondent, Steffan Messenger. We hear about the remarkable natural phenomena of insect migration through a Pyrenean mountain pass. Insect migration scientist, Dr Will Leo Hawkes, explains how migrating flies could help in the face of climate change. Rodney’s Pillar - an update on the campaign to save an iconic landmark near Llanymynech, on the Welsh border. We escape to the Skerries for our Red listed bird of conservation concern and hear how some very noisy Arctic Terns are faring.

In 1823, geologists investigating mammoth remains in Gower found a partial human skeleton, bones heavily stained with red ochre and surrounded a wealth of grave goods including shell beads and carved ivory. Two hundred years on, Tourism Swansea Bay is exploring new ways of the celebrating the legacy of this important find, what came to be known as the Red Lady of Paviland. The project will explore Gower's rich palaeolithic and neolithic sites with walks and places to visit, culminating with the Red Lady Festival at the Gower Heritage Centre 22nd June 2024. Caroline Evans takes a walk back in time to the cave and explores the history and the heritage and asks should the bones the artefacts be returned?

At the 'Tŷ Te' Tea Hub in the village of Trimsaran, the local community gather together weekly for a chat over a good cup of tea! Hosted by Tetrim Teas, a Welsh family business based in the Gwendraeth Valley, is a not-for-profit, wellbeing and ethical tea company. Caroline Evans joins them at the community centre in Trimsaran and hears how they're developing Rhubarb tea and mushroom teas. And they're not the only ones that think tea grown and made in Wales, has a future. In the hills above Knighton, Mandy Lloyd, who seems to relish the challenge of growing tea in less than favourable conditions, is hoping to build on the existing knowledge of growing tea in the UK. Meanwhile, Lucy George has been growing tea for around 9 years on her farm in the Vale of Glamorgan and is now a Nuffield Scholar looking at tea cultivation as a high value niche crop in the UK, one with ecological and social benefits too!

Dancing with Daffodils project - trials are to begin next month using an extract from daffodils, to feed to cows, with the aim of reducing livestock methane emissions and transform the efficiency and sustainability of ruminant farming. We hear how the Chinese Mitten Crab has established itself in the Dee estuary and has now been confirmed in the Conwy estuary. The crab is one of a number of invasive non-native species (INNS) that are on the increase and pose a threat to biodiversity. and at the Oak and Smoke Tannery in Ceredigion, we meet Jane Robertson who uses natural tanning methods to produce and craft traditional leatherwork.

Concern over the 'worrying' state of nature in our national parks in Wales. The Campaign for National Parks calls for urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity declines so National Parks can properly contribute to the UK’s efforts in tackling the nature and climate crisis. The annual Hay literature festival begins and not to miss out on Country Focus, we've a book selection for you! "Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape" discusses the relationship between land and people in Wales. We speak to the author, ecologist Carwyn Graves. ....and for our red-listed, Bird of Conservation Concern this spring month, we have a lesson in how to pick out the trills of the Wood Warbler in a Celtic Rainforest near Dolgellau

Welsh Farmers Unite - a new grassroots organisation organises a march in Cardiff this Tuesday, to highlight the threat to our food security and what they perceive as anti-farming policies. We speak to one of the organisers. We also hear from a group of farmers called Digon yw Digon, or Enough is Enough campaign about their meeting with the Welsh Government's Climate change and Rural Affairs minister The mental health lorry providing a safe haven for farmers to share their struggles and receive support . The DPJ Foundation drives a lorry to the marts and shows in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to provide a dedicated space for the rural farming community. The Scarce Yellow Sally - we explore the efforts to save a large stonefly that was once thought to be extinct on the river Dee, now rediscovered. It's just one of the species focused upon with Natur am Byth - a major nature recovery project to save rare species. And whether it's the shrill carder bee, pink sea-fan coral, barbastelle bat, or Snowdonia’s arctic alpine plants - they're all in line for intensive care and this week is ‘Nature in your Community’ week and we're being encourage to get out and reconnect with nature.

Connecting rural communities and cutting carbon emissions - a network of car clubs across rural Wales. Caroline Evans visits Llandrindod Wells to hear more. We explore Gwydyr Forest in the Conwy Valley where long-gone lead mines mean the area is now home to around 90 per cent of the world's lead Moss. The Dolphin Diet Detectives project - a new initiative of the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales - receives funding to find out what species the bottlenose dolphins of Cardigan Bay are consuming. It involves the collection of dolphin faecal samples - not an easy task - but researchers hope the study will increase our understanding of dolphin and marine conservation in the future And on International Dawn Chorus day, we hear about a new study of nest box-breeding birds by Aberystwyth University, to understand the impact of climate change on competition between birds.

Air Ambulance - campaigners threaten legal action over plans to close air ambulances bases in Wales We visit a heronry in Carmarthenshire to hear how their fairing after the British Trust for Ornithology reveals the latest findings from its long-running Heronries Census. Mystery beans - volunteers at the Seed Library in the Hive Community Space in Llandrindod investigate a donation of some seeds. “Glenys’ Runner Beans" have been passed down through a number of generations - but how old are they and how can they help local growers? The Snowdon beetle is believed to be down to the last thousand on the slopes of the mountain where it lives. But we hear about plans to help save it from possible extinction.