That beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a scarce occurrence in Britain these days, yet not at the Surrey site. Previously, a solitary bird could be heard at this hidden spot in rural Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them singing all night, from several zones,” notes Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the Youngwilders. A group of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the site, but the nightingales were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never touched a songbird in his hands before. He was crying.”
Rewilding Speeds Up at This Location
Rewilding is by nature a slow business, but in this place at the farm, after only a short period, the changes are already apparent, and hearable. The farm was once a haven for animals. Now it’s a model for the youth-led mission: to speed up ecological restoration, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the planet, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to stop. Global heating continues, deforestation destroys natural habitats, and yet another climate conference comes to a unsatisfactory outcome in Brazil – so what person could criticize youth for wishing to take matters into their own hands?
The project was based on the belief that there were landowners ready to permit a bunch of young idiots on to their estate
“The youth is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s previously,” says the Youngwilders’ founder, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have added the smallest part to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected most as a result.”
Transformation of the Property
Today, the organisation is growing across the Britain – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and where we created our community,” notes a founding member, as she offers a tour of the 12-hectare site. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we walk through long grass featuring bushes, bordered by mature woodland. “The primary noticeable change is that we’ve taken out all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to create the impression like a single environment.” In the summer, they donned protective gear and removed large amounts of harmful weeds, an non-native plant that can burn the skin. “We’ve planted numerous of hedgerows,” notes she. “But the key action is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve reduced a significant amount of animal feeding and seen what’s sprung up.”
Underbrush and natural fences are a perfect nightingale home, she comments, although now they’re managing some of the thorny plants to establish a greater variety of ecosystems and to link up different sections of the property. New trees will take a while to take root, but young trees from the adjacent oaks are already taking root in the open areas; the group have been placing barriers to safeguard them from wildlife.
Wildlife Reappears in Droves
It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is returning in large numbers. This year they’ve spotted grass snakes, creatures, nocturnal mammals and insects, notes a team member, as he uncovers one of their survey equipment (like a doormat over a small hollow in the ground). “You get snakes and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cold for them now.” Organic nests, built using empty pieces of tree trunk and buzzing with insects, are fixed to some of the trees. The absence of animals has provided small creatures space to flourish in the long grass. When they came to this season, comments the director, “I’d never encountered so numerous butterflies. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The initial participants – Bennett, Jack, Easton and additional members – formed as learners, studying or sharing an passion in ecology. In the recent past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the target of 1.5C of climate change was seeming out of reach, a prominent figure was spearheading the school strikes for eco-awareness, and campaigner a speaker was discussing youth experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s book, about nature recovery, on how they transformed the a Sussex location from a struggling farm into a successful ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what could be the part for youth?” asks Molly. “So we developed a website and called loads of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders wishing to make changes and you don’t have time?’”
Jack adds the story: “Our whole project was fundamentally founded on the belief that there were landowners who were willing to let a group of youthful amateurs on to their property without strict rules, to decide on significant actions that would impact land value
