That richly complex call of the nightingale is a rare presence in Britain these days, but not at Maple Farm. Previously, a lone bird could be noticed at this hidden spot in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them calling all night, from multiple areas,” explains a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of participants were camping out at the location, yet the birds were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so amazing.” An expert from the regional nature organization came to help them trap and mark one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his hands before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Progresses at This Location
Rewilding is by nature a lengthy endeavor, but here at the farm, after merely a short period, the outcomes are already evident, and noticeable. The farm used to be a haven for equines. Now it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the planet, and to engage youth (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to stop. Climate change persists, habitat loss destroys ecosystems, and another international meeting ends with a disappointing outcome in the host country – so what person could fault young people for wishing to act independently?
The organisation was based on the notion that there were people willing to allow a collection of young amateurs on to their land
“The youth is the best educated ecologically that there’s ever been,” says the Youngwilders’ leader, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have contributed the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer the greatest as a result.”
Change of the Site
Today, the organisation is expanding across the United Kingdom – and the original site planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and the place we built our network,” explains another co-director, as she offers a overview of the 12-hectare site. “This once consisted of six different fields,” she states, as we move through overgrown meadows filled with low scrub, surrounded by established trees. “The key visual difference is that we’ve taken out all the fencing, a significant length of it, to create the impression like a unified landscape.” In the warmer months, they donned protective gear and cleared masses of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can burn the flesh. “We’ve introduced loads of natural barriers,” says Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve removed a significant amount of grazing pressure and noticed what’s come up.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a ideal songbird home, she says, but today they’re managing some of the brambles to establish a greater variety of environments and to connect separate areas of the land. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to take root, but young trees from the adjacent woodland are already taking root in the meadows; the group have been setting up protectors to protect them from animals.
Wildlife Reappears in Droves
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is coming back in abundance. Recently they’ve observed serpents, legless lizards, bats and insects, says Noah Bennett, as he uncovers one of their survey equipment (such as a doormat over a small hollow in the earth). “You discover creatures and things sheltering under there, but it’s probably a slightly cool for them now.” Organic nests, built using empty pieces of wood and humming with insects, are fixed to some of the woodland. The removal of animals has given insects space to flourish in the long grass. When they came to this summer, comments Bennett, “I’d not once seen so numerous lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”
Origins of the Project
The original Youngwilders – Noah, Durant, Molly and additional members – united as students, focusing on or having an interest in nature. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of global heating was appearing unachievable, Greta Thunberg was leading the school strikes for eco-awareness, and campaigner Clover Hogan was discussing the generation feeling “environmental stress”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s publication, about nature recovery, on how they changed the Knepp Estate from a struggling dairy farm into a thriving natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the function for young people?” questions Easton. “So we created a online presence and rang up many of environmental organizations and were like, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders wanting to take action and you don’t have time?’”
Jack continues the story: “Our whole project was essentially founded on the notion that there were landowners who were ready to let a collection of young amateurs on to their estate without strict rules, to take significant decisions that would affect land value
