That manically melodic song of the songbird is a rare sound in Britain these days, yet not at this rural location. Back in 2020, a lone nightingale could be heard at this remote place in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were listening to them calling all night, from several zones,” explains a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A band of volunteers were camping out at the property, yet the birds were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the nightingales the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never touched a songbird in his hands before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Progresses at This Location
Nature recovery is by definition a slow process, but in this place at Maple Farm, after just several seasons, the results are already visible, and noticeable. The property used to be a haven for equines. Currently it’s a example for the youth-led mission: to accelerate nature recovery, 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 climate crisis they are often unable to stop. Rising temperatures persists, tree clearing eliminates natural habitats, and yet another Cop summit comes to a unsatisfactory conclusion in Brazil – so what person could criticize youth for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
Our organisation was based on the notion that there were landowners prepared to allow a collection of young idiots on to their property
“The younger generation is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” states the group's founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have played the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a result.”
Change of the Site
Today, the organisation is taking root across the Britain – and this location planted the seed, in all respects. “It’s where we started, and where we created our network,” says another co-director, as she gives a tour of the 30-acre property. “This was previously six different fields,” she says, as we walk through long grass dotted with bushes, surrounded by established trees. “The main noticeable change is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, a significant length of it, to create the impression like one landscape.” In the summer, they wore hazmat suits and cleared large amounts of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can irritate the skin. “We’ve introduced numerous of bush lines,” notes she. “But the main thing is we’ve just let it breathe for a short time. We’ve removed a significant amount of animal feeding and seen what’s emerged.”
Low scrub and hedgerows are a excellent nightingale environment, she says, however now they’re trimming some of the brambles to create a more diversity of habitats and to connect different sections of the property. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to grow, but new growth from the nearby oaks are already growing in the open areas; the group have been installing protectors to shield them from animals.
Animals Comes Back in Droves
In addition to the nightingales – fauna is returning in large numbers. This year they’ve spotted serpents, legless lizards, nocturnal mammals and insects, notes a team member, as he uncovers one of their reptile mats (like a doormat over a depression in the earth). “You get creatures and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cold for them now.” Natural nests, constructed from empty pieces of timber and buzzing with pollinators, are attached to some of the trees. The removal of animals has provided invertebrates opportunity to prosper in the long grass. When they explored this season, comments Bennett, “I’d not ever observed so many lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”
Origins of the Initiative
The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Molly and two others – united as youth, focusing on or sharing an concern in ecology. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the target of 1.5C of global heating was appearing out of reach, the activist was leading the youth protests for environmental action, and advocate a speaker was addressing youth experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the period of the author's work, on rewilding, on how she and her husband revitalized the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a flourishing ecosystem. “We were super-inspired by the example, but what was the role for youth?” says Easton. “So we developed a online presence and contacted numerous of wildlife trusts and were like, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders seeking to take action and you lack capacity?’”
Durant continues the narrative: “Our complete project was essentially founded on the belief that there were individuals who were willing to permit a group of young idiots on to their property indiscriminately, to take fairly massive decisions that would impact land value
