The manically melodic melody of the nightingale is a scarce occurrence in Britain today, but it's different at Maple Farm. Previously, a single nightingale could be heard at this hidden spot in rural Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from several zones,” says a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of participants were staying overnight at the location, but the birds were so boisterous, “we stayed awake all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the local conservation group came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, she remembers: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his hands before. He was emotional.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at This Location
Nature recovery is by definition a gradual business, but in this place at this property, after merely four years, the changes are already visible, and noticeable. The land was once a retirement home for equines. Now it’s a showpiece for the youth-led purpose: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the planet, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often powerless to stop. Rising temperatures persists, habitat loss eliminates ecosystems, and one more international meeting draws to a disappointing end in abroad – so what person could fault the younger generation for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
Our initiative was based on the idea that there were people willing to permit a bunch of young idiots on to their estate
“The newer cohort is the best educated environmentally that there’s ever been,” explains the Youngwilders’ founder, a key figure. They are also “the highly invested in the challenges, and have played the smallest part to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected most as a consequence.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Currently, the organisation is expanding across the UK – and this location started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and where we created our connections,” explains another co-director, as she provides a walkthrough of the 12-hectare property. “This once consisted of divided plots,” she comments, as we stroll through tall vegetation filled with low scrub, bordered by mature woodland. “The key visual change is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like one environment.” In the recent season, they used special clothing and removed large amounts of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve established loads of bush lines,” says Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve eliminated a lot of grazing pressure and observed what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a excellent songbird home, she says, but currently they’re trimming some of the wild growth to create a more range of environments and to join different sections of the site. Fresh plantings will take much more time to grow, but new growth from the nearby oaks are already growing in the meadows; the group have been placing protectors to shield them from grazing deer.
Wildlife Reappears in Droves
In addition to the nightingales – fauna is coming back in droves. Lately they’ve spotted grass snakes, slowworms, bats and bugs, explains Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (like a doormat over a depression in the soil). “You get reptiles and wildlife residing under there, but it’s likely a somewhat cool for them now.” Wild nests, built using hollowed-out parts of wood and buzzing with insects, are attached to some of the woodland. The absence of grazing horses has provided invertebrates space to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they came to this season, says the director, “I’d not ever encountered so numerous lepidoptera. There were just clouds of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”
Origins of the Movement
The first founders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and additional members – came together as youth, pursuing or sharing an interest in ecology. In the recent past, the climate experts was predicting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of global heating was looking unachievable, Greta Thunberg was leading the school strikes for eco-awareness, and campaigner a speaker was talking about youth feeling “eco-worry”. It was also the era of the author's publication, Wilding, on how the authors transformed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a successful natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the function for young people?” says Easton. “So we developed a platform and rang up many of conservation groups and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders seeking to do something and you lack time?’”
Durant adds the narrative: “Our whole organisation was essentially founded on the notion that there were landowners who were ready to allow a group of young amateurs on to their land freely, to take major actions that would impact land value
