The beautifully intricate melody of the songbird is a rare sound in the UK today, however it's different at this rural location. Back in 2020, a lone nightingale could be heard at this remote place in rural Surrey; this summer, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them calling all night, from multiple areas,” says Meg Cookson, top biologist for the eco-activist organization. A group of volunteers were camping out at the location, but the nightingales were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks an engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson recalls: “He’d never touched a songbird in his possession before. He was crying.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at This Location
Nature recovery is by its very essence a lengthy endeavor, but in this place at Maple Farm, after just a short period, the results are already evident, and noticeable. The land was once a haven for animals. Today it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the world, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a global warming issue they are often unable to halt. Rising temperatures advances, tree clearing eliminates ecosystems, and another climate conference ends with a unsatisfactory conclusion in abroad – so who could blame young people for choosing to take matters into their own hands?
The initiative was based on the idea that there were landowners willing to allow a group of youthful amateurs on to their property
“The newer cohort is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s previously,” says the group's leader, a key figure. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have played the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a result.”
Revitalization of the Property
Now, the group is expanding across the UK – and this location was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and the place we built our connections,” explains another co-director, as she provides a walkthrough of the expansive site. “This once consisted of divided plots,” she comments, as we move through tall vegetation featuring low scrub, bordered by forest. “The main noticeable change is that we’ve removed all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like one area.” In the warmer months, they wore special clothing and cleared large amounts of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can burn the flesh. “We’ve planted loads of bush lines,” says the director. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve removed a significant amount of livestock impact and noticed what’s emerged.”
Underbrush and hedgerows are a perfect songbird home, she comments, although now they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to develop a greater variety of environments and to connect two parts of the land. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to grow, but young trees from the surrounding trees are already taking root in the open areas; the crew have been setting up barriers to shield them from animals.
Wildlife Comes Back in Droves
It’s not just the songbirds – wildlife is coming back in droves. This year they’ve spotted grass snakes, slowworms, bats and bugs, says Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (such as a cover over a indentation in the ground). “You get snakes and animals sheltering under there, but it’s likely a bit cold for them now.” Natural nests, made from hollowed-out sections of wood and buzzing with pollinators, are strapped to some of the plants. The removal of grazing horses has allowed small creatures space to prosper in the long grass. When they visited this summer, states the director, “I’d never seen so countless lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”
Origins of the Project
The original Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Molly and two others – came together as youth, focusing on or having an passion in ecology. In that year, the IPCC was indicating that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of global heating was looking out of reach, a prominent figure was guiding the school strikes for climate movement, and activist another voice was talking about the generation suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the time of the author's publication, about nature recovery, on how the authors transformed the Knepp Estate from a failing farm into a successful ecosystem. “We were highly motivated by the example, but what was the role for young people?” says Easton. “So we developed a online presence and contacted many of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your landowners wanting to take action and you lack capacity?’”
Durant explains the narrative: “Our whole organisation was fundamentally based on the belief that there were individuals who were willing to let a group of young idiots on to their estate without strict rules, to take major actions that would change land value
