The beautifully intricate song of the nightingale is a rare sound in the UK today, yet not at this rural location. Back in 2020, a single bird could be noticed at this hidden location in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them calling all night, from multiple areas,” says one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A band of Youngwilders were camping out at the location, however the birds were so boisterous, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the regional nature organization came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his care before. He was teary.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at This Location
Ecological restoration is by nature a slow business, but here at Maple Farm, after only four years, the results are already evident, and hearable. The farm previously served as a haven for animals. Now it’s a model for the youth-led goal: to hasten habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and to engage youth (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often denied access to, and a environmental emergency they are often ineffectual to prevent. Global heating advances, tree clearing destroys ecosystems, and one more international meeting comes to a frustrating outcome in Brazil – so what person could fault youth for choosing to act independently?
Our initiative was founded on the idea that there were landowners prepared to let a bunch of young idiots on to their land
“The youth is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s previously,” says the Youngwilders’ founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have added the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a consequence.”
Revitalization of the Site
Now, the initiative is growing across the United Kingdom – and the original site was the beginning, in all respects. “It’s where we started, and where we built our network,” notes Molly Easton, as she gives a overview of the 12-hectare property. “This was previously multiple separate areas,” she says, as we move through long grass filled with bushes, bordered by established trees. “The key noticeable change is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to give the sense like a single environment.” In the summer, they wore special clothing and removed masses of harmful weeds, an invasive species that can harm the skin. “We’ve established loads of bush lines,” explains the director. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve removed a large part of livestock impact and seen what’s emerged.”
Low scrub and hedgerows are a perfect nightingale home, she comments, although today they’re trimming some of the brambles to establish a increased range of habitats and to connect separate areas of the property. Fresh plantings will take much more time to grow, but new growth from the adjacent woodland are already growing in the open areas; the crew have been placing barriers to protect them from grazing deer.
Nature Returns in Abundance
It’s not just the songbirds – fauna is reappearing in abundance. Recently they’ve spotted grass snakes, slowworms, bats and invertebrates, notes a team member, as he raises one of their survey equipment (such as a cover over a indentation in the ground). “You discover reptiles and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a slightly chilly for them now.” Natural beehives, built using empty sections of wood and humming with wild bees, are attached to some of the woodland. The absence of grazing horses has provided invertebrates space to flourish in the long grass. When they explored this summer, comments he, “I’d never observed so countless butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Origins of the Movement
The initial founders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and additional members – united as youth, focusing on or sharing an interest in nature. In 2019, the climate experts was indicating that the target of one and a half degrees of global heating was seeming unachievable, a prominent figure was guiding the demonstrations for eco-awareness, and activist a speaker was discussing youth experiencing “eco-worry”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s book, on rewilding, on how the authors changed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a successful natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the role for youth?” questions Molly. “So we created a platform and rang up loads of environmental organizations and were like, ‘Do you ever get your property owners wanting to take action and you don’t have resources?’”
Jack adds the narrative: “Our whole organisation was basically founded on the belief that there were individuals who were prepared to permit a collection of young amateurs on to their land indiscriminately, to make fairly massive actions that would affect land value
