The manically melodic melody of the songbird is a rare presence in Britain today, yet it's different at the Surrey site. Previously, a single nightingale could be heard at this hidden place in rural Surrey; this summer, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from five different territories,” notes a lead scientist, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of participants were camping out at the property, however the nightingales were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so amazing.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the birds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his hands before. He was crying.”
Rewilding Accelerates at Maple Farm
Rewilding is by nature a slow process, but at this site at this property, after merely four years, the changes are already apparent, and audible. The property was once a haven for animals. Today it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to accelerate ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the planet, and to engage young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often denied access to, and a global warming issue they are often powerless to halt. Global heating continues, deforestation damages wildlife homes, and one more climate conference ends with a frustrating conclusion in the host country – so who could fault young people for wishing to take matters into their own hands?
Our organisation was based on the belief that there were landowners prepared to permit a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their property
“The youth is the best educated environmentally that there’s historically,” explains the Youngwilders’ co-director, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the issues, and have added the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a consequence.”
Revitalization of the Landscape
Now, the group is taking root across the UK – and this location was the beginning, in all respects. “It’s the initial project, and the place we built our network,” notes a founding member, as she gives a walkthrough of the expansive land. “This was previously six different fields,” she comments, as we stroll through long grass dotted with low scrub, hemmed by forest. “The key visible transformation is that we’ve removed all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to give the sense like a unified area.” In the recent season, they donned special clothing and cleared large amounts of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve established loads of natural barriers,” explains she. “But the key action is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve reduced a lot of grazing pressure and noticed what’s sprung up.”
Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal nightingale habitat, she explains, however today they’re managing some of the wild growth to develop a greater variety of ecosystems and to connect two parts of the site. Fresh plantings will take much more time to grow, but new growth from the adjacent woodland are already growing in the fields; the group have been setting up guards to protect them from grazing deer.
Nature Reappears in Abundance
It’s not just the nightingales – animals is returning in droves. Recently they’ve spotted reptiles, legless lizards, nocturnal mammals and insects, explains a team member, as he uncovers one of their monitoring tools (similar to a cover over a indentation in the soil). “You get reptiles and animals sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cold for them now.” Organic beehives, built using hollowed-out pieces of wood and humming with pollinators, are attached to some of the woodland. The removal of animals has provided insects opportunity to thrive in the long grass. When they explored this summer, comments the director, “I’d not once seen so countless lepidoptera. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Initiative
The initial participants – Noah, Durant, Easton and more individuals – came together as youth, pursuing or having an passion in environmental science. In 2019, the IPCC was predicting that the target of one and a half degrees of warming was looking out of reach, a prominent figure was leading the demonstrations for environmental action, and advocate another voice was talking about the generation suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of the author's book, on rewilding, on how she and her husband revitalized the a nearby property from a struggling farm into a flourishing ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what could be the role for the next generation?” asks Easton. “So we made a online presence and called many of conservation groups and were like, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders wanting to take action and you lack time?’”
Durant explains the story: “Our whole organisation was basically premised on the idea that there were landowners who were ready to let a group of youthful amateurs on to their land without strict rules, to take fairly massive decisions that would affect land value
