That manically melodic call of the nightingale is a rare occurrence in England nowadays, but it's different at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a solitary bird could be noticed at this hidden location in rural Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them singing all night, from five different territories,” says a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A group of volunteers were camping out at the location, yet the birds were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” comments 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 capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never held a nightingale in his care before. He was teary.”
Ecological Restoration Accelerates at This Location
Ecological restoration is by nature a gradual process, but here at Maple Farm, after merely a short period, the changes are already evident, and audible. The farm used to be a sanctuary for horses. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ goal: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the most nature-depleted nations in the planet, and to link youth (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often unable to stop. Climate change continues, habitat loss destroys wildlife homes, and yet another international meeting ends with a unsatisfactory end in abroad – so who could blame young people for wanting to initiate change themselves?
Our initiative was based on the belief that there were individuals prepared to allow a bunch of young amateurs on to their property
“The younger generation is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s previously,” says the group's founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have contributed the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a result.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Now, the organisation is growing across the Britain – and this location was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and the place we established our community,” says another co-director, as she offers a tour of the 12-hectare land. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we stroll through long grass featuring low scrub, surrounded by mature woodland. “The primary noticeable change is that we’ve taken out all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like one landscape.” In the recent season, they donned special clothing and cleared large amounts of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can burn the body. “We’ve established many of hedgerows,” says the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve reduced a significant amount of grazing pressure and observed what’s sprung up.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a perfect songbird habitat, she says, however today they’re managing some of the brambles to establish a increased variety of environments and to join different sections of the land. New trees will take much more time to establish, but saplings from the nearby oaks are already growing in the open areas; the group have been installing barriers to safeguard them from wildlife.
Nature Returns in Abundance
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is returning in large numbers. Recently they’ve seen reptiles, slowworms, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, explains another co-director, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (such as a doormat over a depression in the soil). “You discover creatures and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s possibly a slightly cold for them now.” Wild beehives, made from carved parts of tree trunk and active with pollinators, are attached to some of the plants. The lack of animals has given small creatures opportunity to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they explored this summer, states Bennett, “I’d not once seen so numerous insects. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Movement
The first Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and two others – united as learners, pursuing or sharing an concern in environmental science. In 2019, the IPCC was forecasting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of warming was looking out of reach, a prominent figure was leading the school strikes for environmental action, and campaigner Clover Hogan was addressing the generation suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the era of the author's book, Wilding, on how they changed the Knepp Estate from a struggling dairy farm into a thriving wildlife haven. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the role for youth?” asks Easton. “So we made a platform and contacted many of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders wanting to take action and you lack resources?’”
Jack explains the narrative: “Our entire organisation was fundamentally premised on the belief that there were individuals who were willing to allow a group of young idiots on to their estate freely, to make significant actions that would change land value
