That manically melodic melody of the songbird is a rare sound in England these days, yet not at Maple Farm. Back in 2020, a solitary bird could be noticed at this hidden location in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them calling all night, from five different territories,” notes one ecologist, top biologist for the eco-activist organization. A group of volunteers were staying overnight at the property, but the nightingales were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” 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 possession before. He was teary.”
Rewilding Progresses at This Location
Rewilding is by definition a gradual process, but at this site at this property, after just four years, the outcomes are already apparent, and hearable. The property previously served as a retirement home for equines. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to hasten habitat revival, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the planet, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often unable to halt. Rising temperatures persists, habitat loss destroys natural habitats, and yet another Cop summit ends with a disappointing outcome in Brazil – so what person could blame the younger generation for wanting to initiate change themselves?
The project was based on the notion that there were landowners prepared to let a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their property
“The youth is the best educated ecologically that there’s historically,” says the Youngwilders’ founder, a key figure. They are also “the highly invested in the problems, and have contributed the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a result.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Today, the initiative is expanding across the UK – and the original site started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and where we built our network,” notes another co-director, as she gives a overview of the 30-acre land. “This used to be six different fields,” she says, as we stroll through tall vegetation featuring shrubs, surrounded by established trees. “The primary visible difference is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like a single area.” In the warmer months, they wore hazmat suits and removed significant quantities of harmful weeds, an aggressive flora that can burn the skin. “We’ve planted many of hedgerows,” says the director. “But the key action is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve reduced a lot of animal feeding and noticed what’s emerged.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a excellent songbird habitat, she comments, however now they’re managing some of the brambles to create a more range of habitats and to join different sections of the property. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to establish, but new growth from the nearby woodland are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the crew have been placing guards to safeguard them from wildlife.
Wildlife Returns in Abundance
It’s not just the songbirds – fauna is returning in droves. This year they’ve observed serpents, slowworms, nocturnal mammals and insects, explains a team member, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (like a mat over a small hollow in the earth). “You find snakes and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a bit cold for them now.” Wild nests, constructed from carved parts of timber and active with insects, are attached to some of the trees. The lack of animals has given small creatures opportunity to thrive in the meadows. When they visited this summer, comments the director, “I’d not once seen so many insects. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is occurring?’”
Origins of the Movement
The initial founders – Noah, Jack, Molly and additional members – came together as learners, focusing on or sharing an passion in environmental science. In that year, the IPCC was predicting that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of warming was seeming impossible, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the school strikes for climate movement, and advocate another voice was addressing young people feeling “climate anxiety”. It was also the era of a writer's work, on rewilding, on how the authors transformed the Knepp Estate from a struggling agricultural business into a thriving ecosystem. “We were super-inspired by the case study, but what was the part for young people?” says Molly. “So we made a platform and called many of conservation groups and were like, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders wanting to make changes and you are short on resources?’”
Durant explains the story: “Our entire project was basically premised on the belief that there were people who were prepared to let a collection of young idiots on to their estate indiscriminately, to take fairly massive choices that would impact land value
