The richly complex song of the songbird is a uncommon presence in the UK these days, but not at this rural location. Previously, a solitary bird could be detected at this remote spot in rural Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them singing all night, from five different territories,” says one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A team of volunteers were residing temporarily at the location, but the nightingales were so loud, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” remarks Layla Mapemba. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the local conservation group came to help them capture and tag one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson states: “He’d never touched a songbird in his possession before. He was teary.”
Ecological Restoration Progresses at the Surrey Site
Nature recovery is by its very essence a slow business, but in this place at Maple Farm, after just a short period, the changes are already visible, and audible. The farm previously served as a haven for horses. Today it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to speed up nature recovery, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the world, and to engage young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often unable to halt. Global heating persists, tree clearing destroys ecosystems, and one more Cop summit comes to a unsatisfactory end in Brazil – so what person could blame youth for choosing to act independently?
The initiative was based on the notion that there were individuals willing to permit a bunch of youthful enthusiasts on to their property
“The youth is the most informed ecologically that there’s previously,” says the Youngwilders’ leader, one organizer. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have added the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a result.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Currently, the initiative is expanding across the United Kingdom – and this location started it all, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and where we created our network,” explains another co-director, as she offers a walkthrough of the expansive site. “This was previously six different fields,” she states, as we stroll through long grass dotted with bushes, bordered by mature woodland. “The primary visible change is that we’ve removed all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to create the impression like one area.” In the warmer months, they wore hazmat suits and eradicated large amounts of harmful weeds, an non-native plant that can irritate the skin. “We’ve planted many of bush lines,” notes Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve removed a significant amount of grazing pressure and observed what’s sprung up.”
Low scrub and shrub lines are a perfect nightingale habitat, she comments, however now they’re managing some of the brambles to develop a increased range of habitats and to link up two parts of the land. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to establish, but new growth from the adjacent oaks are already growing in the open areas; the team have been installing protectors to protect them from grazing deer.
Animals Reappears in Droves
It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is reappearing in abundance. Lately they’ve spotted serpents, slowworms, bats and bugs, says another co-director, as he raises one of their survey equipment (such as a cover over a depression in the soil). “You discover creatures and animals sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a slightly cool for them now.” Organic beehives, made from empty pieces of timber and humming with wild bees, are fixed to some of the trees. The absence of animals has allowed insects room to prosper in the long grass. When they visited this summer, comments he, “I’d never seen so many butterflies. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and additional members – came together as learners, pursuing or sharing an concern in ecology. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forecasting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of climate change was appearing impossible, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the demonstrations for eco-awareness, and advocate another voice was discussing young people feeling “eco-worry”. It was also the period of a writer's book, on rewilding, on how she and her husband transformed the a Sussex location from a failing dairy farm into a flourishing wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what was the role for the next generation?” questions Easton. “So we created a website and rang up loads of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners seeking to take action and you don’t have resources?’”
Jack explains the story: “Our complete project was fundamentally founded on the notion that there were people who were ready to allow a collection of youthful idiots on to their estate freely, to make significant choices that would change land value
