Summer has always been a hectic time ever since I started working for the Wyre Forest District Council Ranger Service. This year was no exception, and, if anything was even more busy.

Through the school holiday the ranger service hosts a wide range of environmental educational activities. Many of these take place on the nature reserves of the district and help people either to appreciate the wonder and importance of the reserves or explore aspects of these reserves' wildlife, for example, their bats or insects. Another thread of the education programme is directed at the children from the district's housing estates. This education programme, which is run in partnership with Wyre Forest Community Housing and aims to expand children's horizons, gives them an appreciation of the natural world and presents them with new challenges and experiences. A lot of these activities take place around the nature reserves of the district but some occur in more far flung locations.

For a few years one of these locations has been the national nature reserve of Kenfig, South Wales. This location was chosen for several reasons. Firstly, because of the varied wildlife it supports. Kenfig is a coastal nature reserve and was declared a national nature reserve due to its magnificent sand dunes and the unique wild flora. The children greatly enjoy their treks across the dunes especially as they help to assist the natural cycle of erosion by jumping off the dunes and rolling in the sand.

Kenfig also has a long beach with miles of golden sand and due to its remote location even on a sunny day in August will be very much deserted.

This is great as the children enjoy the vastness of the open space and have fun discovering the basics of ecology as they explore the rock pool life.

It may seem the habitats of Kenfig are vastly different to what the children find in Wyre Forest, but there are some similarities.

Kenfig has sandy soils just like the heaths, and in August just like the Rifle Range nature reserve, it bursts into shocking pink heather blooms.

The beach sands and rock pools also harbour primitive bristletails. Very similar insects are found in Habberley Valley.

The principles of ecology the children learn are universal throughout the natural world. And just like the reserves in Wyre Forest, Kenfig needs to be cared for in order for its wildlife and natural beauty, which the children have spent their day enjoying, to continue into the future.

Hopefully, the fun and experiences the children have had on these activities will instil an interest and appreciation for their natural environment, and, in time these children and ones like them will take on the mantle of caring for the natural environment into the future.