The beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a uncommon occurrence in Britain these days, but it's different at the Surrey site. Previously, a lone bird could be noticed at this hidden location in rural Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them singing all night, from five different territories,” notes a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A team of participants were staying overnight at the site, but the birds were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never touched a songbird in his possession before. He was crying.”
Rewilding Accelerates at Maple Farm
Nature recovery is by nature a slow endeavor, but in this place at the farm, after just a short period, the results are already apparent, and hearable. The property was once a retirement home for animals. Currently it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to speed up ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to stop. Rising temperatures persists, tree clearing damages wildlife homes, and yet another climate conference comes to a disappointing end in Brazil – so who could blame youth for wanting to act independently?
Our project was premised on the belief that there were landowners prepared to let a collection of young enthusiasts on to their property
“The younger generation is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s historically,” says the group's co-director, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have contributed the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a result.”
Change of the Landscape
Now, the initiative is taking root across the Britain – and this location started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we established our community,” explains another co-director, as she offers a tour of the 12-hectare land. “This used to be divided plots,” she comments, as we walk through overgrown meadows filled with shrubs, bordered by mature woodland. “The key visible change is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like a single area.” In the recent season, they used hazmat suits and removed significant quantities of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can irritate the skin. “We’ve planted loads of bush lines,” notes she. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve reduced a lot of grazing pressure and observed what’s come up.”
Underbrush and hedgerows are a perfect songbird environment, she says, although now they’re managing some of the wild growth to develop a more diversity of habitats and to connect different sections of the land. Fresh plantings will take a while to grow, but new growth from the nearby oaks are already growing in the meadows; the crew have been setting up barriers to safeguard them from wildlife.
Nature Reappears in Abundance
In addition to the nightingales – wildlife is reappearing in abundance. Lately they’ve spotted grass snakes, creatures, flyers and insects, explains Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (like a doormat over a small hollow in the ground). “You discover reptiles and things sheltering under there, but it’s likely a bit cold for them now.” Organic beehives, constructed from carved parts of wood and buzzing with pollinators, are attached to some of the plants. The lack of livestock has provided insects space to prosper in the meadows. When they visited this time, says he, “I’d not once seen so countless lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is occurring?’”
Beginnings of the Movement
The first participants – Bennett, Durant, Easton and two others – united as students, studying or having an passion in nature. In that year, the IPCC was forecasting that the safe limit of 1.5C of global heating was appearing impossible, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the school strikes for eco-awareness, and advocate Clover Hogan was addressing youth feeling “eco-worry”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s work, about nature recovery, on how the authors changed the a Sussex location from a struggling farm into a successful wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what could be the role for the next generation?” says Molly. “So we developed a platform and contacted loads of conservation groups and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners wishing to make changes and you lack time?’”
Durant adds the story: “Our complete project was essentially founded on the notion that there were landowners who were willing to permit a collection of young enthusiasts on to their estate without strict rules, to take fairly massive choices that would impact land value
