The manically melodic song of the songbird is a scarce occurrence in the UK nowadays, yet not at Maple Farm. Back in 2020, a solitary nightingale could be heard at this secluded spot in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them singing all night, from five different territories,” says a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of participants were camping out at the location, however the birds were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was teary.”
Ecological Restoration Progresses at This Location
Ecological restoration is by its very essence a lengthy process, but here at the farm, after merely four years, the outcomes are already apparent, and noticeable. The property was once a retirement home for horses. Now it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world, and to link youth (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to halt. Rising temperatures persists, habitat loss destroys ecosystems, and one more Cop summit draws to a frustrating conclusion in Brazil – so what person could fault youth for wanting to initiate change themselves?
The organisation was premised on the idea that there were landowners ready to allow a bunch of young idiots on to their property
“The youth is the most informed in terms of nature that there’s previously,” explains the Youngwilders’ leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have contributed the smallest part to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a result.”
Change of the Property
Now, the organisation is expanding across the UK – and this location started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and where we established our network,” says another co-director, as she gives a walkthrough of the 30-acre land. “This used to be six different fields,” she comments, as we move through overgrown meadows featuring low scrub, hemmed by mature woodland. “The key visual difference is that we’ve removed all the enclosures, a significant length of it, to make it feel like a unified environment.” In the recent season, they donned special clothing and removed significant quantities of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can burn the skin. “We’ve planted many of natural barriers,” notes she. “But the primary focus is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve removed a significant amount of grazing pressure and observed what’s emerged.”
Bushes and hedgerows are a perfect songbird environment, she says, although currently they’re cutting back some of the brambles to create a more diversity of habitats and to join different sections of the site. Fresh plantings will take a while to establish, but saplings from the nearby trees are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the group have been setting up protectors to protect them from wildlife.
Nature Reappears in Droves
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is reappearing in droves. This year they’ve observed reptiles, legless lizards, flyers and insects, notes another co-director, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (such as a doormat over a depression in the ground). “You find snakes and things residing under there, but it’s probably a somewhat chilly for them now.” Organic nests, built using carved parts of wood and buzzing with wild bees, are strapped to some of the plants. The absence of livestock has provided small creatures opportunity to flourish in the meadows. When they came to this summer, comments he, “I’d not ever observed so many lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is occurring?’”
Inception of the Movement
The first participants – Bennett, Durant, Easton and more individuals – came together as youth, focusing on or having an concern in environmental science. In 2019, the IPCC was forecasting that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of warming was appearing out of reach, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the school strikes for climate movement, and advocate a speaker was addressing young people experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the period of the author's publication, about nature recovery, on how the authors changed the a nearby property from a struggling farm into a successful wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what was the role for the next generation?” questions Easton. “So we developed a online presence and contacted loads of environmental organizations and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners wishing to make changes and you are short on resources?’”
Durant explains the narrative: “Our complete project was basically based on the notion that there were individuals who were prepared to let a group of young amateurs on to their property without strict rules, to take fairly massive actions that would change land value
