The manically melodic call of the songbird is a rare occurrence in the UK today, but not at this rural location. Back in 2020, a single nightingale could be heard at this hidden location in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were all around. “We were hearing them calling all night, from multiple areas,” notes Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A team of volunteers were staying overnight at the location, but the birds were so loud, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” comments an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his hands before. He was teary.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at Maple Farm
Rewilding is by nature a slow process, but here at this property, after merely several seasons, the changes are already apparent, and audible. The land used to be a haven for horses. Today it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ goal: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the world, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often powerless to prevent. Climate change continues, deforestation damages ecosystems, and yet another international meeting comes to a unsatisfactory end in abroad – so who could blame young people for choosing to take matters into their own hands?
The initiative was based on the belief that there were individuals ready to permit a group of young amateurs on to their estate
“The newer cohort is the most informed environmentally that there’s previously,” explains the group's founder, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have contributed the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a consequence.”
Change of the Site
Now, the group is expanding across the United Kingdom – and the original site planted the seed, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we created our network,” notes another co-director, as she provides a walkthrough of the expansive site. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we walk through tall vegetation featuring bushes, bordered by mature woodland. “The key noticeable difference is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, a significant length of it, to give the sense like a unified landscape.” In the summer, they donned special clothing and removed masses of harmful weeds, an invasive species that can burn the skin. “We’ve planted many of bush lines,” explains Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve removed a lot of animal feeding and seen what’s sprung up.”
Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal songbird home, she comments, although today they’re managing some of the thorny plants to develop a more range of environments and to link up different sections of the property. New trees will take much more time to grow, but young trees from the surrounding trees are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the group have been setting up barriers to shield them from wildlife.
Wildlife Reappears in Abundance
There's more than the songbirds – wildlife is coming back in large numbers. This year they’ve seen serpents, slowworms, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, explains a team member, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (like a cover over a depression in the earth). “You get creatures and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s likely a somewhat chilly for them now.” Natural homes, built using empty sections of wood and humming with pollinators, are strapped to some of the woodland. The lack of livestock has given insects opportunity to flourish in the meadows. When they came to this season, comments the director, “I’d not ever encountered so countless butterflies. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Initiative
The first founders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and two others – formed as youth, focusing on or sharing an concern in environmental science. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forecasting that the target of one and a half degrees of global heating was seeming unachievable, Greta Thunberg was guiding the youth protests for environmental action, and activist a speaker was discussing young people feeling “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of a writer's work, Wilding, on how the authors revitalized the Knepp Estate from a failing farm into a successful ecosystem. “We were super-inspired by the case study, but what was the function for young people?” says Easton. “So we developed a platform and called loads of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders wanting to take action and you don’t have resources?’”
Jack continues the story: “Our complete initiative was essentially premised on the belief that there were landowners who were prepared to allow a group of young enthusiasts on to their land freely, to decide on major choices that would impact land value
