The richly complex melody of the nightingale is a scarce occurrence in England today, but not at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a single nightingale could be heard at this secluded spot in rural Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from five different territories,” explains Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the Youngwilders. A team of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the site, but the birds were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so cool.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the songbirds the next morning, she remembers: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his care before. He was teary.”
Habitat Revival Speeds Up at Maple Farm
Ecological restoration is by definition a slow business, but here at Maple Farm, after just several seasons, the outcomes are already apparent, and hearable. The land used to be a sanctuary for equines. Today it’s a example for the Youngwilders’ mission: to speed up ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the planet, and to engage young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often unable to stop. Global heating continues, habitat loss eliminates wildlife homes, and yet another international meeting comes to a frustrating end in the host country – so who could fault the younger generation for wishing to take matters into their own hands?
The initiative was founded on the notion that there were people ready to let a group of young amateurs on to their property
“The younger generation is the best educated environmentally that there’s ever been,” explains the group's leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have played the smallest part to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a consequence.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Today, the group is expanding across the UK – and the original site planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and the place we built our community,” notes another co-director, as she gives a walkthrough of the expansive site. “This once consisted of divided plots,” she states, as we walk through overgrown meadows dotted with low scrub, bordered by mature woodland. “The key visible transformation is that we’ve taken out all the fencing, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like a unified landscape.” In the summer, they used protective gear and eradicated masses of giant hogweed, an aggressive flora that can harm the flesh. “We’ve planted many of bush lines,” explains Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just given it space for a little bit. We’ve reduced a significant amount of animal feeding and seen what’s emerged.”
Bushes and natural fences are a excellent songbird habitat, she says, but now they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to create a more range of habitats and to link up separate areas of the site. Young saplings will take much more time to establish, but new growth from the nearby trees are already taking root in the open areas; the team have been setting up protectors to protect them from wildlife.
Wildlife Returns in Large Numbers
There's more than the songbirds – animals is returning in droves. Lately they’ve spotted reptiles, creatures, flyers and insects, says another co-director, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (such as a doormat over a indentation in the ground). “You discover creatures and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s likely a slightly cold for them now.” Organic beehives, constructed from empty pieces of tree trunk and buzzing with pollinators, are attached to some of the woodland. The absence of livestock has given insects opportunity to thrive in the meadows. When they came to this time, says the director, “I’d never observed so many butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is occurring?’”
Beginnings of the Movement
The initial participants – Bennett, Jack, Easton and additional members – united as students, focusing on or expressing an concern in nature. In the recent past, the IPCC was predicting that the target of 1.5C of global heating was seeming unachievable, the activist was leading the demonstrations for climate movement, and campaigner a speaker was talking about young people experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the time of a writer's book, about nature recovery, on how she and her husband changed the a nearby property from a unsuccessful agricultural business into a successful wildlife haven. “We were super-inspired by the Knepp story, but what could be the role for young people?” says Easton. “So we created a platform and called many of environmental organizations and were like, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders seeking to do something and you are short on resources?’”
Durant continues the account: “Our complete organisation was fundamentally premised on the belief that there were people who were ready to permit a collection of young idiots on to their estate without strict rules, to make significant choices that would affect land value