That richly complex song of the songbird is a scarce sound in England these days, but it's different at the Surrey site. Previously, a solitary nightingale could be heard at this secluded place in rural Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them calling all night, from multiple areas,” says Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of participants were camping out at the site, but the birds were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” remarks an engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, she states: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was emotional.”
Rewilding Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Nature recovery is by definition a slow process, but in this place at Maple Farm, after only several seasons, the changes are already apparent, and audible. The farm was once a sanctuary for horses. Now it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ goal: to speed up ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the planet, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to stop. Climate change advances, habitat loss damages ecosystems, and yet another international meeting ends with a disappointing outcome in Brazil – so what person could criticize youth for wishing to act independently?
Our organisation was premised on the idea that there were landowners willing to permit a collection of young amateurs on to their property
“The newer cohort is the most knowledgeable environmentally that there’s previously,” explains the Youngwilders’ leader, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have contributed the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer the greatest as a outcome.”
Revitalization of the Property
Today, the group is taking root across the Britain – and the original site planted the seed, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and where we created our connections,” explains another co-director, as she provides a walkthrough of the 12-hectare land. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she says, as we move through tall vegetation featuring shrubs, hemmed by forest. “The main visual difference is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like a single area.” In the warmer months, they wore protective gear and eradicated significant quantities of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can irritate the skin. “We’ve planted numerous of hedgerows,” explains the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve reduced a lot of livestock impact and seen what’s emerged.”
Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal nightingale habitat, she explains, but currently they’re cutting back some of the brambles to establish a greater range of environments and to connect different sections of the property. Young saplings will take a while to grow, but young trees from the surrounding oaks are already establishing themselves in the fields; the group have been installing barriers to shield them from animals.
Wildlife Reappears in Abundance
There's more than the nightingales – fauna is returning in droves. This year they’ve observed reptiles, slowworms, bats and invertebrates, explains a team member, as he uncovers one of their survey equipment (similar to a doormat over a small hollow in the earth). “You find snakes and things residing under there, but it’s probably a somewhat cool for them now.” Organic homes, built using carved sections of wood and active with insects, are fixed to some of the woodland. The lack of grazing horses has provided small creatures space to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they explored this summer, comments the director, “I’d never seen so countless butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The initial founders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and two others – came together as learners, focusing on or expressing an passion in ecology. In the recent past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was indicating that the target of 1.5C of climate change was seeming impossible, Greta Thunberg was leading the demonstrations for climate movement, and activist another voice was discussing youth experiencing “eco-worry”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s book, Wilding, on how the authors transformed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a thriving wildlife haven. “We were super-inspired by the example, but what was the part for youth?” says Molly. “So we created a online presence and called loads of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders seeking to take action and you don’t have resources?’”
Durant continues the narrative: “Our entire initiative was basically based on the belief that there were individuals who were prepared to allow a group of youthful amateurs on to their property without strict rules, to take significant actions that would impact land value
