The manically melodic song of the songbird is a uncommon sound in Britain nowadays, however not at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a single nightingale could be heard at this secluded spot in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from multiple areas,” says a lead scientist, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A group of volunteers were residing temporarily at the property, but the birds were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” remarks an engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An specialist from the local conservation group came to help them trap and mark one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his hands before. He was crying.”
Ecological Restoration Accelerates at Maple Farm
Rewilding is by nature a gradual business, but here at Maple Farm, after only four years, the changes are already apparent, and noticeable. The farm was once a haven for horses. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ goal: to speed up nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor countries in the world, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to stop. Climate change continues, habitat loss eliminates ecosystems, and another international meeting draws to a disappointing conclusion in abroad – so what person could criticize young people for choosing to take matters into their own hands?
The organisation was based on the belief that there were landowners willing to permit a group of young enthusiasts on to their estate
“The younger generation is the most informed environmentally that there’s previously,” explains the group's founder, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have contributed the smallest part to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected most as a result.”
Change of the Property
Today, the initiative is expanding across the UK – and this location planted the seed, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and where we built our connections,” explains another co-director, as she offers a tour of the 12-hectare property. “This used to be six different fields,” she states, as we move through tall vegetation dotted with bushes, surrounded by established trees. “The main noticeable transformation is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, a significant length of it, to create the impression like one area.” In the summer, they donned special clothing and cleared significant quantities of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can irritate the body. “We’ve established loads of natural barriers,” explains she. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve reduced a large part of animal feeding and seen what’s come up.”
Low scrub and shrub lines are a ideal nightingale environment, she explains, but currently they’re trimming some of the brambles to establish a increased range of ecosystems and to connect separate areas of the property. Fresh plantings will take a while to grow, but saplings from the surrounding oaks are already establishing themselves in the fields; the crew have been installing barriers to shield them from animals.
Wildlife Returns in Large Numbers
It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is returning in droves. Lately they’ve seen reptiles, creatures, flyers and insects, says a team member, as he uncovers one of their reptile mats (similar to a mat over a small hollow in the ground). “You discover creatures and animals hiding under there, but it’s probably a bit cool for them now.” Natural beehives, constructed from empty pieces of timber and buzzing with wild bees, are fixed to some of the plants. The removal of animals has provided invertebrates room to prosper in the meadows. When they came to this summer, comments the director, “I’d not ever observed so countless insects. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Inception of the Initiative
The initial founders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and two others – came together as youth, studying or having an concern in nature. In that year, the climate experts was indicating that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of warming was looking out of reach, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the school strikes for environmental action, and activist another voice was talking about youth suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the time of the author's book, on rewilding, on how they changed the Knepp Estate from a struggling agricultural business into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the function for young people?” says Easton. “So we developed a online presence and contacted numerous of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders seeking to do something and you are short on resources?’”
Durant explains the account: “Our complete initiative was fundamentally premised on the idea that there were landowners who were willing to allow a collection of young idiots on to their estate freely, to decide on major choices that would impact land value
