The richly complex melody of the nightingale is a uncommon sound in England nowadays, however it's different at Maple Farm. Back in 2020, a lone bird could be noticed at this secluded place in rural Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them calling all night, from several zones,” says a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of participants were camping out at the location, yet the birds were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the local conservation group came to help them trap and mark one of the nightingales the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never held a songbird in his care before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by nature a slow business, but at this site at this property, after merely a short period, the outcomes are already visible, and hearable. The land previously served as a sanctuary for horses. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished regions in the planet, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often unable to prevent. Global heating persists, deforestation eliminates ecosystems, and another Cop summit ends with a frustrating conclusion in the host country – so what person could criticize young people for choosing to initiate change themselves?
The organisation was based on the belief that there were individuals willing to permit a collection of youthful idiots on to their land
“The youth is the most knowledgeable ecologically that there’s ever been,” states the group's co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have contributed the smallest part to their creation, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a result.”
Revitalization of the Site
Now, the group is expanding across the Britain – and this location planted the seed, in all respects. “It’s where we started, and the place we built our network,” explains Molly Easton, as she gives a tour of the 12-hectare site. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we walk through tall vegetation dotted with low scrub, hemmed by established trees. “The primary visual difference is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like a single area.” In the warmer months, they wore hazmat suits and removed significant quantities of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve introduced numerous of natural barriers,” says Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve removed a significant amount of livestock impact and observed what’s emerged.”
Bushes and natural fences are a ideal songbird home, she comments, however currently they’re managing some of the thorny plants to develop a greater range of environments and to link up different sections of the property. New trees will take much more time to grow, but saplings from the surrounding oaks are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the group have been placing protectors to shield them from grazing deer.
Wildlife Comes Back in Abundance
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is returning in abundance. Lately they’ve spotted grass snakes, creatures, bats and invertebrates, notes a team member, as he raises one of their survey equipment (like a doormat over a depression in the earth). “You find reptiles and things sheltering under there, but it’s likely a somewhat cold for them now.” Wild beehives, built using carved pieces of timber and active with insects, are attached to some of the woodland. The lack of grazing horses has given insects room to prosper in the long grass. When they visited this season, states the director, “I’d never encountered so numerous butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Inception of the Movement
The first Youngwilders – Noah, Durant, Easton and two others – united as learners, pursuing or having an concern in environmental science. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was indicating that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of climate change was seeming out of reach, Greta Thunberg was guiding the youth protests for environmental action, and activist Clover Hogan was discussing young people feeling “eco-worry”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s publication, on rewilding, on how she and her husband transformed the a Sussex location from a struggling agricultural business into a thriving natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the example, but what was the role for young people?” questions Easton. “So we created a online presence and contacted many of conservation groups and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners seeking to do something and you don’t have resources?’”
Jack explains the narrative: “Our whole organisation was basically based on the belief that there were individuals who were prepared to permit a collection of young idiots on to their land indiscriminately, to decide on significant decisions that would change land value
