That richly complex call of the songbird is a rare occurrence in Britain today, but it's different at this rural location. Four years ago, a single bird could be heard at this remote spot in rural Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were hearing them singing all night, from multiple areas,” notes Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A group of volunteers were camping out at the property, but the nightingales were so boisterous, “we stayed awake all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, the ecologist states: “He’d never touched a songbird in his care before. He was crying.”
Habitat Revival Progresses at the Surrey Site
Nature recovery is by definition a slow process, but in this place at Maple Farm, after merely a short period, the outcomes are already apparent, and audible. The land was once a haven for horses. Currently it’s a model for the youth-led goal: to accelerate ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the planet, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often unable to stop. Rising temperatures continues, tree clearing damages natural habitats, and one more Cop summit draws to a unsatisfactory end in Brazil – so what person could blame young people for wanting to act independently?
The organisation was founded on the notion that there were people willing to permit a bunch of youthful amateurs on to their land
“The younger generation is the most knowledgeable ecologically that there’s historically,” explains the Youngwilders’ leader, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the issues, and have added the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a result.”
Transformation of the Site
Currently, the group is expanding across the UK – and Maple Farm started it all, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and where we established our connections,” says another co-director, as she offers a overview of the 12-hectare land. “This once consisted of six different fields,” she states, as we move through long grass dotted with bushes, bordered by established trees. “The key noticeable difference is that we’ve removed all the barriers, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like a unified landscape.” In the summer, they wore special clothing and removed significant quantities of harmful weeds, an non-native plant that can harm the body. “We’ve planted numerous of hedgerows,” notes she. “But the primary focus is we’ve just let it breathe for a short time. We’ve removed a large part of animal feeding and observed what’s sprung up.”
Low scrub and hedgerows are a perfect nightingale environment, she comments, although currently they’re managing some of the thorny plants to establish a increased diversity of environments and to connect two parts of the site. Fresh plantings will take much more time to grow, but new growth from the nearby woodland are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the team have been installing protectors to safeguard them from animals.
Nature Comes Back in Large Numbers
In addition to the nightingales – wildlife is returning in large numbers. Recently they’ve observed serpents, slowworms, bats and invertebrates, explains another co-director, as he raises one of their survey equipment (similar to a doormat over a indentation in the ground). “You find reptiles and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s probably a bit chilly for them now.” Natural beehives, made from carved pieces of timber and active with wild bees, are fixed to some of the woodland. The removal of grazing horses has given insects space to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they visited this season, comments he, “I’d never encountered so countless insects. There were just masses of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Movement
The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and more individuals – came together as learners, studying or expressing an concern in environmental science. In the recent past, the climate experts was indicating that the safe limit of 1.5C of warming was looking out of reach, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the youth protests for environmental action, and advocate Clover Hogan was talking about the generation experiencing “eco-worry”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s book, on rewilding, on how the authors revitalized the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful agricultural business into a successful ecosystem. “We were super-inspired by the example, but what was the function for youth?” questions Easton. “So we created a online presence and contacted many of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners wishing to do something and you lack capacity?’”
Jack continues the narrative: “Our whole initiative was fundamentally based on the idea that there were landowners who were prepared to permit a group of young amateurs on to their land without strict rules, to take fairly massive choices that would affect land value
