The manically melodic melody of the nightingale is a scarce presence in Britain these days, but not at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a lone nightingale could be detected at this hidden location in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from multiple areas,” explains Meg Cookson, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of participants were camping out at the property, however the birds were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” says a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so amazing.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the songbirds the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was teary.”
Rewilding Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Ecological restoration is by its very essence a gradual process, but at this site at Maple Farm, after only a short period, the results are already visible, and audible. The land used to be a haven for animals. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ goal: to accelerate ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted nations in the planet, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often unable to halt. Rising temperatures advances, habitat loss destroys ecosystems, and one more international meeting ends with a frustrating outcome in Brazil – so who could criticize young people for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
Our initiative was premised on the notion that there were people willing to let a group of young enthusiasts on to their land
“The newer cohort is the most informed ecologically that there’s previously,” says the group's co-director, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have contributed the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a consequence.”
Change of the Site
Today, the group is taking root across the UK – and this location started it all, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and where we established our network,” explains a founding member, as she offers a walkthrough of the expansive property. “This once consisted of divided plots,” she says, as we move through overgrown meadows filled with bushes, surrounded by forest. “The primary visual difference is that we’ve eliminated all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like a unified landscape.” In the recent season, they wore hazmat suits and removed large amounts of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can irritate the body. “We’ve planted many of natural barriers,” explains Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve eliminated a large part of animal feeding and seen what’s come up.”
Bushes and natural fences are a ideal songbird environment, she explains, although now they’re trimming some of the brambles to establish a increased diversity of environments and to join separate areas of the site. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to establish, but new growth from the adjacent woodland are already taking root in the fields; the team have been installing guards to safeguard them from animals.
Wildlife Comes Back in Droves
In addition to the nightingales – wildlife is returning in droves. Recently they’ve observed reptiles, slowworms, bats and insects, explains Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their reptile mats (like a mat over a depression in the earth). “You find creatures and wildlife residing under there, but it’s likely a somewhat cool for them now.” Organic nests, constructed from empty sections of tree trunk and humming with insects, are fixed to some of the trees. The removal of livestock has provided invertebrates opportunity to thrive in the meadows. When they explored this season, says he, “I’d not once observed so numerous lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”
Inception of the Project
The initial founders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and more individuals – united as students, pursuing or expressing an concern in nature. In the recent past, the IPCC was indicating that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of warming was looking impossible, the activist was spearheading the school strikes for eco-awareness, and advocate Clover Hogan was discussing the generation experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of a writer's publication, on rewilding, on how the authors transformed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a thriving natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the example, but what could be the part for youth?” says Molly. “So we developed a platform and contacted loads of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your landowners wishing to take action and you don’t have time?’”
Durant explains the account: “Our entire initiative was fundamentally founded on the notion that there were landowners who were ready to let a bunch of youthful idiots on to their property without strict rules, to decide on significant actions that would impact land value
