That manically melodic song of the nightingale is a scarce sound in Britain today, yet not at this rural location. Previously, a lone nightingale could be detected at this remote place in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were all around. “We were hearing them singing all night, from several zones,” says a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A band of participants were staying overnight at the property, however the birds were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” says a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the local conservation group came to help them capture and tag one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist states: “He’d never touched a songbird in his care before. He was teary.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Nature recovery is by nature a lengthy process, but in this place at Maple Farm, after just several seasons, the results are already visible, and noticeable. The farm previously served as a retirement home for equines. Today it’s a example for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the planet, and to link the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to prevent. Climate change continues, tree clearing eliminates wildlife homes, and another international meeting ends with a frustrating conclusion in the host country – so what person could fault young people for wishing to initiate change themselves?
The project was based on the notion that there were people prepared to permit a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their land
“The newer cohort is the best educated ecologically that there’s historically,” says the group's co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have played the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a consequence.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Now, the initiative is expanding across the UK – and the original site was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and the place we built our connections,” explains a founding member, as she provides a tour of the 30-acre property. “This used to be six different fields,” she comments, as we move through tall vegetation filled with shrubs, hemmed by established trees. “The key visual change is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, over a kilometer of it, to give the sense like one area.” In the warmer months, they used hazmat suits and cleared large amounts of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can harm the skin. “We’ve introduced many of bush lines,” explains Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve reduced a significant amount of animal feeding and seen what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and natural fences are a perfect songbird habitat, she comments, however now they’re cutting back some of the brambles to create a more diversity of habitats and to link up separate areas of the site. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to take root, but saplings from the nearby oaks are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the team have been installing barriers to protect them from animals.
Nature Comes Back in Abundance
In addition to the nightingales – fauna is returning in abundance. Lately they’ve seen reptiles, legless lizards, bats and invertebrates, notes a team member, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (similar to a cover over a indentation in the ground). “You discover creatures and animals sheltering under there, but it’s probably a somewhat cool for them now.” Organic beehives, constructed from carved pieces of timber and active with wild bees, are fixed to some of the trees. The lack of grazing horses has provided invertebrates space to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they explored this time, says he, “I’d not once seen so numerous insects. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Movement
The initial founders – Noah, Durant, Molly and more individuals – formed as students, focusing on or having an interest in ecology. In 2019, the IPCC was predicting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of climate change was appearing impossible, a prominent figure was guiding the school strikes for environmental action, and advocate a speaker was talking about youth experiencing “eco-worry”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s book, on rewilding, on how they changed the a nearby property from a struggling farm into a successful ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what could be the role for the next generation?” asks Easton. “So we made a platform and rang up numerous of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders wanting to take action and you are short on resources?’”
Jack adds the narrative: “Our whole project was essentially premised on the notion that there were landowners who were prepared to allow a bunch of young amateurs on to their property freely, to make major decisions that would impact land value
