Comm: "This is one of the few places of unspoilt nature in the United Kingdom.

"An area with pockets of perfectly preserved terrain and teeming ecosystems.

Where is this relic of a pre-factory age countryside?

"The answer is surprising - it's the military's tank firing range.

"The answer is surprising. It's the military's tank firing range.

"In the South of England, in Dorset, the Lulworth Gunnery School is in fact one of the many military areas that are unintended sanctuaries for Britain's endangered species.

"Such as this Slow Worm for example, the Silver Studded Blue butterfly, or this smooth snake - all considered endangered or vulnerable in the UK today.

"Britain's Ministry of Defence owns some 240,000 hectares of training ground.

"Land, which hasn't been farmed on, or built on for centuries.

"Though weapons of destruction are common, these tanks, machine guns and exploding shells at Lulworth haven't had a detrimental effect on the environment.

"And the animals are relatively oblivious.

"This certainly hasn't gone unnoticed by the MOD.

"Major Mick Burgess and Colonel James Baker are two of the MOD employees dedicated to the conservation of Defence Estate land.

"Here at Lulworth, Range officer Major Burgess is supported by Head of MOD conservation Colonel Baker, in looking after 2989 hectares of nearly unspoiled nature reserve.

"Together they must ensure that the training of the soldiers, and the protection of the environment are both getting attention.

"Finding the right balance is not always an easy task. To ensure the land is properly looked after, Major Burgess relies on a team of amateur and professional conservationists to keep their eye on Lulworth's land."

Bryan Edwards: "I joined the conservation committee in 1994 and since that time I've been walking around and recording the different plant species, and also recording different vegetation types which are found on the ranges.

"And this is such a fantastic area, such a diverse area, as you go from the coastal cliffs through to the mires on the heath land there is such a range of habitats really has been largely untouched by modern agriculture.

"So you're on a little sort of time zone down here. It is an amazing place, every time I come down here I sort of find new species.

"Ooh! Smooth Snake.

"For each of the rare species I do a sketch map of where it occurs what type of habitat its growing in, just to keep a record of where it is and also to let MOD know where its growing and if they can do any management to encourage it.

"This is Limonium dodartiforme, a species of rock sea lavender which is a very rare species globally, confined to the Dorset coast and it grows on the cliffs tops and the faces of the chalk cliffs. And then also there's another colony down on the Chesil beach but that's about it really, nowhere else in the world at all.

"This is bog hair grass, which is a nationally scarce species, confined to wet acid soils on heath land. But it is quite vulnerable being right next to the tank run there hence the fence posts and the sign. This little patch here is probably 75% of the Dorset population, so it's quite important."

Comm: "Since Bryan began surveying at Lulworth, he has spent hundreds of hours cataloging thousands of species."

Bryan Edwards: "In many ways I think an ecosystem, a woodland or a grass land which has many different species of flowers and insects and birds and whatever indicates a certain health of a planet itself. So if these things start dying out, then there is something wrong.

"To prevent the destruction of wildlife and habitats in the UK, organisations such as WWF have dedicated themselves to fighting for them."

Robert Napier: "The UK wildlife is facing a crisis. It's facing a crisis because the habitats where that wildlife lives is being destroyed. In recent times we've destroyed 97% of rich wildlife grassland, we've destroyed 80% of heath land.

"If you destroy these habitats the wildlife have got nowhere to go and surprise surprise, they start to die out, we lose species."

Bryan Edwards: "Particularly if we're talking about bird and insect species, I mean there is a balance there, so if you take out a predator then there will be an explosion of population of one lets say one particular insect and that can be eating a particular plant species and there will be a knock on effect so if you're taking one part of the puzzle out, then you can upset a whole ecosystem.

"According to WWF 134 species of plants and animals have become extinct in the UK this century. 300 British Government designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest are destroyed or damaged every year.

"Increasing prosperity and lifestyle changes have driven the urban sprawl. That's why a gunnery school can also be a refuge.

"Lulworth is home to one of the most thriving populations of Sika and Roe Deer in the UK."

Terry Cooper, Deer Manager, Lulworth: "Now if you wanted to get a good shot of these you could get in the back with the dogs."

Comm: Major Terry Cooper is Lulworth's principal deer manager; something his army training has well prepared him for..."

Terry Cooper: "Lets go for a walk. The winds right and the suns right, let's hope the deer are there.

"We're all MOD employees and we do this on a volunteer basis. We have a group on this particular range looking after 600 plus deer. They all go through a training system and at the end of that period I can safely say that we've got very experienced, semi professional deer stalkers.

"Is this a bit better for you? I think they've actually seen our cameraman. Ok. What you've got there is a small group of hinds and stags just moving up there.

"It's so difficult to actually get near these herds at this time of year cause of course they've got small young with them. They like acid soils they like the cover they like the wet ground, they can put up with vehicles, or they can put up with gunfire, but they don't like human disturbance. Which now, that group settled down, they're all feeding out there - they've had their human disturbance for the day. But generally this is fantastic habitat for them.

"The farming methods nowadays, you know there's hardly any ground that's left with an edible crop on it and during the winter months its all been plowed up and the metabolism of deers will change as well and they need a different type of food, and I think once again, you know, we have it here, they need the rough grazing that we have here on the MOD ranges.

"This area is Sika country, downtown sikaland they just love it here and that's why we're kept so busy. Strange people that we are we spend most of our lives sat out here under hedges and trees like this, watching the sun go down. Not a bad life I suppose, not a bad hobby.

Bryan Edwards: "Mod are huge landowners and really their species have survived more or less by accident; really, I mean that's the great thing.

"They didn't intend to save all these things but they have by owning such large areas and keeping the public out, keeping disturbance low, and not intensively farming the land - I mean that's been the key thing."

Comm: "The soldiers at Lulworth train nearly all year round. During training, the estate is marked as a danger area and red lights or flags warn against the exploding shells and firing practices. Crucially this means the public are kept away. Although, after hours they do make one or two exceptions.

"Colonel Evelyn Prendergast is Lulworth's reigning Odonatist, more commonly known as, the dragonfly man."

Evelyn Prendergast: "Lets see what we've got this time...You see that is a nationally scarce species actually, a small red damselfly. And it only occurs on heathland like this. Weren't you lucky, the first one you see is a scarce one and we'll see if we can find something blue to go with the red."

Comm: "Lulworth has an exceptional dragonfly population, but it wasn't always so.

"Military practices at Lulworth have not only made Lulworth a safe haven for these creatures, but they have often promoted the growth and survival of Lulworth's natural world through its own destructive practices.

"Heath Fires, started by exploding shells, have brought unexpected benefits."

Evelyn Prendergast: "Three years ago, four years ago, all that area you see there went up in flames one afternoon and it went quite out of control. And when they got the fire engines out to try and put it out they found that there was absolutely no water at all so with the range officer we designed a new pond there which is readily accessible to any fire engines coming along where they can fill up their tanks if they have another fire and also it happens to be, its nice and sheltered, so the dragonflies appreciate it too, shall we go down and have a look at it?

"We made a total of 14 all together and they're made primarily by using some dangerous explosives which had to be blown up anyway and the whole thing went bang and made these bigger pools down below and they've been a great success as far as dragonflies are concerned. Because it gives you open water among all the acid bog where there was none before.

"Just purely coincidence they are interesting dragonflies and on some occasions I come here I may see 20 or 30 just flying around. And as I say endangered, but quite common here, thanks we believe largely to the work we've done on this land.

"Oh you're looking at me you should be looking at it. This is what's known as the common blue damselfly, and it's very similar to the azure damselfly, the main difference being that tiny little mark on the second segment there. And the pattern down on this end, the blue is different in the other one. In fact if you hold a damselfly like that by its wings it doesn't do it any harm at all. On a good day you might see fifty, a hundred or more just sort of going around the pond, either flying around by themselves, looking for mates, or actually paired up together or laying their eggs.

"Can you see that mating pair there? You see she brings up her back end onto his chest and they mate like that in a circle.

"And then when they finish that they often fly off together, very peculiar, but it takes two to do that."

Bryan Edwards: "This area has been put forward as a special area of conservation under the European Habitats directive. And also it's very very wet.

"Really the key plant here is this bog moss, it really acts as a sponge and sort of holds the water and supports all these wonderful things like the carnivorous sundews there. Which has sort of glue on the end of these hairs on the leaves and then the leaf curls up and the plant digests the insect to get more nutrients cause basically it has to get other food to survive."

Evelyn Prendergast: "Not a nice fate. In fact that was the one we were looking for that's the azure. Very sad. You sit on a lovely flower and what does it do, it sucks your blood. You can't blame it; all the sundew was doing was doing what nature provided it for. The way it gets its food it's just like that.

"We haven't got any dragonfly larva but we've got some newts and beetles. This is rather fun when you dig into a pond like that you never know what you're going to get out. If we had been looking for newts and beetles we would have found larva I'm sure. Another shot lets see if I can do it without falling in the pond. There it is just on the edge. In amongst all the newts and everything we've found a dragonfly larva there, can you see it in here? Ugly looking little brute. You see that's the sort of thing that emerges from the water, climbs up onto a reed or something like that, splits along the back and slowly emerges out of its skin to become a beautiful damselfly, or dragonfly in this case. It's quite a remarkable transformation. Can I go please now?"

Bryan Edwards: "In England or in Great Britain we have a long history of amateur ecology if you like, actually recording things, collecting things, writing floras, so there is a long history in this country and I think we have to preserve that and we have to encourage our children and grandchildren to become interested so that we preserve all these beautiful plants and animals and habitats for the future, I think its very very important."

Comnm: "On the east side of the range, Steve Hale and his wife Maureen look after Lulworth's colony of Sand martins, who return to Lulworth each year after an exhausting flight from Africa."

Steve Hale, Ornithologist: "I've been ringing on the ranges for, well, '95 I started.

"It takes about two or three years to get a license on your own. An awful lot of commitment, very unsocial hours, very early mornings, very late nights. The chap that trained me for ringer was my predecessor on the ranges, so when he retired I jumped into his shoes and its been very good, its gotten better ever since, its gotten better.

"I first started ringing because I got a little bit fed up with the way bird watching was going some years ago, there was a twitching element to get long lists of rare birds, and I didn't really want to be associated with that so I moved into more sort of local patchwork bird watching in your own little areas.

"And the ringing side it was a nice spin off because it's a scientific input of all the birds you're looking at. So the work we're doing here is all helping hopefully to figure out what's going wrong, with all the ringers across the country with all the other projects all the data can be put together on a country wide basis to see if there is any difference in southern latitudes to northern latitudes or what's going on.

"Lets hang these up. It's a very exciting scheme. The main point of the study is to get birds coming back from the previous year. I've got birds here this year, which are four or five years old. Which is quite encouraging, and its like finding an old friend turn up. And that's what the study is all about; survival of adult birds rather than keep on ringing new birds we really go for the old birds to see if they make it back from Africa.

"This is another female, blue patch. The males will develop a small blue patch so you have to be a little careful which is why I said its got a good blue patch or a small one. This is an adult 4, ring number P158303.

"The address if the British Museum, London SW7. The British Museum kindly allow their address to be used cause it can fit on the ring and everybody knows of the British Museum in London so it's quite a useful address.

"Wing of 103 millimeters. On the ranges I only really do the Sand martins now, cause the emphasis is on special studies than just random ringing. Fabulous birds, I enjoy the study of Sand martins more than anything else because they're small and pleasant and they don't bite, they don't bite. The Sand martin is not yet on the red list but the population has declined probably 52% in the last 5 or 6 years so its getting some concern. Grams."

Maureen Hale: "Oh, not quite our heaviest tonight."

Steve Hale: "Ok, amazing little birds."

Comm: "The UK Military is far from being alone. Throughout the world, training ranges double as wildlife refuges. A sign at how badly civilians are doing in safeguarding nature.

"And so, organisations such as WWF are calling upon everyone to campaign for stronger wildlife protection."

Robert Napier: "There is hope, its still within our control there is action we can take that will reverse or at least stop the decline and that's within our grasp and its for people like WWF to be getting the message out there that we can do better. And lets learn from the tragic mistakes of the past to ensure we do provide a living countryside for our children and our grandchildren."

Bryan Edwards: "I mean it sounds silly but it a way, can you imagine a world without birdsong, for instance or without trees, or without butterflies or whatever. I mean can you actually imagine it? I mean it's just as simple as that, to me."

Comm: "The irony is that amongst the deadliest weapons in a landscape of destruction, a kind of hope has been created.

"In the future perhaps we can restore a living working countryside. For now nature's army will continue to help defend Britain's wildlife.