That richly complex call of the songbird is a scarce presence in the UK today, however it's different at this rural location. Four years ago, a solitary nightingale could be noticed at this remote place in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were all around. “We were hearing them singing all night, from five different territories,” notes Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A group of volunteers were staying overnight at the site, yet the birds were so boisterous, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his care before. He was teary.”
Rewilding Progresses at Maple Farm
Nature recovery is by its very essence a slow endeavor, but in this place at the farm, after only four years, the changes are already evident, and audible. The land was once a sanctuary for horses. Today it’s a model for the youth-led purpose: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor nations in the world, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to halt. Climate change continues, deforestation eliminates natural habitats, and yet another Cop summit comes to a disappointing conclusion in the host country – so what person could fault the younger generation for wishing to act independently?
The project was based on the idea that there were individuals ready to allow a collection of youthful amateurs on to their estate
“The youth is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” says the group's leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the deeply concerned in the problems, and have contributed the smallest part to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a consequence.”
Transformation of the Site
Now, the group is growing across the Britain – and the original site planted the seed, in all respects. “It’s where we started, and the place we established our network,” explains another co-director, as she offers a walkthrough of the 12-hectare land. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we stroll through long grass featuring shrubs, bordered by mature woodland. “The key visible difference is that we’ve eliminated all the barriers, over a kilometer of it, to give the sense like a unified environment.” In the summer, they wore special clothing and cleared large amounts of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can irritate the skin. “We’ve planted many of bush lines,” says the director. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve eliminated a lot of livestock impact and seen what’s sprung up.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a perfect songbird environment, she explains, but currently they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to establish a increased diversity of ecosystems and to connect two parts of the property. Young saplings will take considerably longer to grow, but new growth from the surrounding oaks are already growing in the open areas; the crew have been installing barriers to shield them from animals.
Nature Comes Back in Large Numbers
It’s not just the songbirds – animals is coming back in abundance. This year they’ve observed serpents, creatures, nocturnal mammals and bugs, explains a team member, as he raises one of their reptile mats (like a cover over a indentation in the ground). “You get reptiles and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s likely a bit chilly for them now.” Natural beehives, built using empty pieces of timber and humming with pollinators, are fixed to some of the plants. The removal of livestock has provided small creatures opportunity to thrive in the meadows. When they came to this time, comments the director, “I’d not ever encountered so many insects. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The first Youngwilders – Noah, Durant, Easton and more individuals – came together as youth, pursuing or sharing an passion in environmental science. In 2019, the IPCC was forecasting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of global heating was seeming impossible, Greta Thunberg was leading the demonstrations for environmental action, and advocate another voice was talking about youth experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the period of the author's book, Wilding, on how the authors changed the Knepp Estate from a failing dairy farm into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were super-inspired by the example, but what could be the role for the next generation?” asks Easton. “So we created a platform and called many of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your property owners wishing to take action and you don’t have time?’”
Durant adds the story: “Our whole organisation was essentially based on the belief that there were landowners who were prepared to let a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their land freely, to decide on fairly massive actions that would impact land value
