The richly complex song of the nightingale is a rare occurrence in Britain today, yet not at this rural location. Previously, a solitary nightingale could be heard at this secluded spot in rural Surrey; this summer, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them singing all night, from five different territories,” notes Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A team of volunteers were camping out at the site, however the birds were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the local conservation group came to help them net and ring one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never touched a songbird in his hands before. He was teary.”
Rewilding Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by definition a gradual process, but here at Maple Farm, after merely four years, the outcomes are already apparent, and noticeable. The farm was once a haven for equines. Today it’s a example for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor nations in the world, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a global warming issue they are often unable to halt. Rising temperatures persists, habitat loss destroys ecosystems, and yet another international meeting ends with a frustrating conclusion in abroad – so who could fault young people for choosing to act independently?
Our initiative was based on the notion that there were landowners willing to let a collection of young amateurs on to their estate
“The newer cohort is the best educated ecologically that there’s previously,” explains the group's leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the highly invested in the problems, and have added the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a outcome.”
Change of the Site
Today, the group is growing across the United Kingdom – and this location was the beginning, in all respects. “It’s our origin point, and where we built our network,” notes another co-director, as she offers a overview of the 30-acre property. “This was previously six different fields,” she states, as we walk through overgrown meadows dotted with low scrub, hemmed by forest. “The primary visual transformation is that we’ve removed all the barriers, over a kilometer of it, to give the sense like a single landscape.” In the warmer months, they wore hazmat suits and cleared significant quantities of harmful weeds, an invasive species that can harm the skin. “We’ve established loads of hedgerows,” explains Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a brief period. We’ve reduced a lot of livestock impact and seen what’s emerged.”
Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal songbird environment, she explains, however currently they’re cutting back some of the brambles to establish a more range of ecosystems and to connect two parts of the site. Young saplings will take considerably longer to establish, but saplings from the nearby trees are already growing in the fields; the team have been setting up guards to protect them from animals.
Nature Reappears in Large Numbers
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is coming back in abundance. Lately they’ve observed reptiles, legless lizards, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, says Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (similar to a mat over a small hollow in the soil). “You discover reptiles and things sheltering under there, but it’s likely a somewhat cold for them now.” Natural beehives, constructed from hollowed-out sections of wood and active with wild bees, are fixed to some of the trees. The lack of grazing horses has allowed small creatures space to prosper in the meadows. When they explored this season, says Bennett, “I’d not ever encountered so countless butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”
Origins of the Movement
The first Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and more individuals – united as learners, pursuing or expressing an concern in ecology. In the recent past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forecasting that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of global heating was looking unachievable, a prominent figure was guiding the youth protests for environmental action, and advocate Clover Hogan was talking about the generation feeling “environmental stress”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s publication, Wilding, on how she and her husband revitalized the Knepp Estate from a struggling dairy farm into a flourishing ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what could be the role for young people?” questions Molly. “So we made a platform and called loads of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your property owners wanting to do something and you lack time?’”
Jack explains the narrative: “Our whole organisation was fundamentally based on the notion that there were people who were prepared to let a bunch of youthful amateurs on to their land indiscriminately, to make fairly massive choices that would impact land value
