That richly complex song of the nightingale is a uncommon presence in Britain these days, yet it's different at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a solitary bird could be detected at this hidden place in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were all around. “We were hearing them calling all night, from five different territories,” explains one ecologist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A team of participants were staying overnight at the site, but the nightingales were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so incredible.” An specialist from the regional nature organization came to help them net and ring one of the birds the next morning, Cookson recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his care before. He was teary.”
Habitat Revival Progresses at Maple Farm
Ecological restoration is by nature a gradual business, but in this place at Maple Farm, after only four years, the results are already visible, and hearable. The land previously served as a sanctuary for horses. Now it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor countries in the planet, and to link youth (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to stop. Rising temperatures persists, habitat loss destroys natural habitats, and yet another Cop summit comes to a unsatisfactory end in Brazil – so what person could fault the younger generation for wishing to act independently?
Our project was based on the notion that there were people willing to let a bunch of youthful amateurs on to their estate
“The youth is the most informed environmentally that there’s ever been,” states the group's founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have added the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a result.”
Revitalization of the Site
Today, the organisation is expanding across the United Kingdom – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and where we established our network,” explains another co-director, as she gives a walkthrough of the expansive property. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she states, as we move through long grass filled with bushes, bordered by forest. “The main noticeable transformation is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like one landscape.” In the warmer months, they wore special clothing and removed masses of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can burn the flesh. “We’ve introduced loads of hedgerows,” notes the director. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a short time. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of livestock impact and observed what’s emerged.”
Bushes and hedgerows are a perfect songbird environment, she comments, however now they’re trimming some of the thorny plants to develop a increased diversity of habitats and to connect separate areas of the property. New trees will take much more time to grow, but new growth from the nearby trees are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the group have been placing protectors to protect them from grazing deer.
Wildlife Comes Back in Abundance
In addition to the songbirds – wildlife is returning in droves. This year they’ve seen serpents, legless lizards, bats and invertebrates, says another co-director, as he raises one of their survey equipment (such as a mat over a indentation in the soil). “You discover creatures and wildlife residing under there, but it’s possibly a slightly cool for them now.” Natural nests, built using empty pieces of timber and buzzing with pollinators, are attached to some of the trees. The lack of livestock has allowed invertebrates room to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they visited this time, comments Bennett, “I’d never seen so many butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Movement
The first Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and more individuals – came together as students, pursuing or having an concern in nature. In that year, the IPCC was indicating that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of global heating was appearing impossible, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the youth protests for environmental action, and activist Clover Hogan was discussing young people experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the time of a writer's book, about nature recovery, on how she and her husband changed the Knepp Estate from a struggling farm into a successful ecosystem. “We were super-inspired by the example, but what was the function for young people?” says Molly. “So we made a website and rang up numerous of conservation groups and were like, ‘Do you ever get your property owners seeking to take action and you are short on capacity?’”
Jack continues the story: “Our entire initiative was basically premised on the notion that there were people who were willing to let a bunch of young idiots on to their estate freely, to make significant actions that would affect land value
