The beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a uncommon presence in Britain these days, yet not at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a solitary bird could be noticed at this remote location in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from several zones,” explains a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A team of participants were residing temporarily at the location, however the nightingales were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks Layla Mapemba. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so amazing.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the birds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his possession before. He was crying.”
Ecological Restoration Accelerates at Maple Farm
Rewilding is by nature a gradual business, but here at this property, after merely several seasons, the outcomes are already visible, and noticeable. The land used to be a haven for animals. Today it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ goal: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished nations in the globe, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to halt. Climate change advances, habitat loss destroys natural habitats, and another Cop summit comes to a unsatisfactory end in Brazil – so who could fault youth for wanting to act independently?
Our project was founded on the belief that there were landowners ready to let a collection of young enthusiasts on to their estate
“The younger generation is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” explains the group's co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have played the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a outcome.”
Transformation of the Property
Now, the organisation is growing across the United Kingdom – and this location planted the seed, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we created our community,” notes a founding member, as she offers a walkthrough of the expansive land. “This was previously divided plots,” she says, as we move through tall vegetation featuring low scrub, surrounded by mature woodland. “The primary visual change is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, a significant length of it, to give the sense like a single environment.” In the summer, they wore protective gear and removed masses of harmful weeds, an aggressive flora that can irritate the body. “We’ve planted loads of hedgerows,” notes the director. “But the primary focus is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve reduced a large part of livestock impact and noticed what’s emerged.”
Bushes and natural fences are a perfect songbird habitat, she says, although now they’re trimming some of the brambles to create a greater diversity of environments and to link up two parts of the land. New trees will take much more time to take root, but young trees from the surrounding woodland are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the team have been installing protectors to safeguard them from wildlife.
Nature Comes Back in Droves
It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is coming back in abundance. This year they’ve spotted reptiles, slowworms, flyers and insects, notes a team member, as he uncovers one of their reptile mats (like a cover over a depression in the soil). “You find creatures and things residing under there, but it’s probably a slightly chilly for them now.” Wild nests, made from carved parts of wood and buzzing with pollinators, are attached to some of the woodland. The removal of animals has given insects room to flourish in the meadows. When they explored this time, states he, “I’d not once seen so numerous butterflies. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”
Origins of the Project
The initial participants – Bennett, Durant, Easton and two others – came together as students, studying or having an passion in ecology. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was indicating that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of climate change was seeming unachievable, the activist was leading the demonstrations for environmental action, and campaigner another voice was addressing youth experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the era of a writer's publication, Wilding, on how they changed the a Sussex location from a struggling farm into a thriving ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what was the function for youth?” says Easton. “So we created a website and called many of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your landowners seeking to do something and you don’t have resources?’”
Jack explains the narrative: “Our whole initiative was basically based on the belief that there were individuals who were ready to permit a bunch of young idiots on to their estate indiscriminately, to make major actions that would impact land value
