The manically melodic melody of the songbird is a scarce presence in England today, yet not at Maple Farm. Four years ago, a solitary bird could be noticed at this remote place in rural Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were listening to them calling all night, from several zones,” explains one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A team of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the location, yet the nightingales were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks 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 net and ring one of the nightingales the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never touched a songbird in his care before. He was teary.”
Ecological Restoration Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by definition a slow business, but in this place at this property, after only several seasons, the outcomes are already evident, and hearable. The property previously served as a retirement home for equines. Today it’s a showpiece for the youth-led goal: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and to connect the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to halt. Climate change persists, deforestation destroys natural habitats, and another Cop summit draws to a unsatisfactory outcome in abroad – so who could criticize the younger generation for wishing to act independently?
Our organisation was based on the notion that there were individuals prepared to let a bunch of young idiots on to their property
“The newer cohort is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” explains the Youngwilders’ co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have contributed the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a consequence.”
Revitalization of the Landscape
Now, the group is growing across the UK – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and the place we created our community,” notes a founding member, as she provides a walkthrough of the 30-acre site. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she states, as we walk through long grass dotted with shrubs, hemmed by mature woodland. “The main noticeable difference is that we’ve removed all the barriers, a significant length of it, to make it feel like one environment.” In the warmer months, they wore special clothing and removed large amounts of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can irritate the skin. “We’ve established loads of bush lines,” notes Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of grazing pressure and seen what’s sprung up.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a ideal nightingale home, she says, although today they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to create a more diversity of environments and to connect separate areas of the land. New trees will take considerably longer to grow, but new growth from the surrounding oaks are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the group have been installing barriers to shield them from animals.
Nature Comes Back in Abundance
In addition to the songbirds – animals is returning in abundance. Lately they’ve seen grass snakes, legless lizards, bats and bugs, notes a team member, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (such as a cover over a small hollow in the soil). “You get reptiles and things hiding under there, but it’s likely a somewhat cool for them now.” Wild beehives, constructed from empty parts of timber and buzzing with pollinators, are attached to some of the woodland. The absence of animals has allowed invertebrates space to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they visited this season, states Bennett, “I’d never observed so numerous lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Movement
The initial founders – Bennett, Durant, Molly and more individuals – formed as learners, pursuing or having an interest in environmental science. In the recent past, the IPCC was forecasting that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of warming was appearing unachievable, a prominent figure was guiding the youth protests for environmental action, and activist a speaker was talking about young people suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the period of a writer's work, on rewilding, on how they changed the a Sussex location from a unsuccessful farm into a successful wildlife haven. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what could be the role for young people?” asks Molly. “So we created a platform and called loads of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your landowners wishing to take action and you don’t have capacity?’”
Jack continues the story: “Our entire organisation was basically founded on the belief that there were landowners who were prepared to allow a collection of young amateurs on to their estate freely, to make significant choices that would change land value
