The manically melodic call of the songbird is a scarce occurrence in Britain these days, but it's different at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a single nightingale could be detected at this secluded place in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them singing all night, from five different territories,” notes Meg Cookson, top biologist for the eco-activist organization. A group of Youngwilders were camping out at the property, yet the nightingales were so boisterous, “we stayed awake all night,” comments Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the local conservation group came to help them net and ring one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist states: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his care before. He was crying.”
Rewilding Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Ecological restoration is by definition a lengthy endeavor, but in this place at the farm, after merely several seasons, the changes are already visible, and audible. The property used to be a retirement home for equines. Currently it’s a example for the youth-led goal: to accelerate ecological restoration, in one of the ecologically impoverished nations in the planet, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to prevent. Climate change advances, habitat loss destroys ecosystems, and yet another Cop summit comes to a frustrating end in the host country – so who could criticize young people for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
The organisation was premised on the belief that there were landowners prepared to allow a collection of youthful idiots on to their land
“The youth is the most informed ecologically that there’s previously,” says the group's founder, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have contributed the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a consequence.”
Change of the Property
Today, 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 community,” notes another co-director, as she provides a walkthrough of the 30-acre property. “This was previously divided plots,” she states, as we stroll through overgrown meadows dotted with bushes, bordered by mature woodland. “The main visual difference is that we’ve removed all the barriers, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like a single area.” In the warmer months, they used special clothing and removed masses of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can harm the body. “We’ve planted loads of bush lines,” says the director. “But the key action is we’ve just given it space for a little bit. We’ve removed a significant amount of grazing pressure and noticed what’s sprung up.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a ideal nightingale habitat, she comments, although today they’re trimming some of the brambles to establish a increased diversity of ecosystems and to join separate areas of the land. New trees will take a while to take root, but young trees from the adjacent woodland are already growing in the open areas; the crew have been setting up guards to protect them from grazing deer.
Wildlife Comes Back in Abundance
In addition to the songbirds – fauna is returning in droves. Recently they’ve seen grass snakes, legless lizards, flyers and bugs, says Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (such as a doormat over a depression in the ground). “You find reptiles and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s likely a somewhat cold for them now.” Wild homes, made from empty sections of timber and humming with insects, are attached to some of the woodland. The absence of grazing horses has allowed invertebrates opportunity to thrive in the long grass. When they came to this season, comments he, “I’d not once observed so many butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Origins of the Project
The original Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and more individuals – formed as youth, studying or having an interest in ecology. In that year, the IPCC was forecasting that the target of one and a half degrees of climate change was seeming out of reach, Greta Thunberg was guiding the school strikes for climate movement, and campaigner a speaker was talking about the generation suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of the author's publication, about nature recovery, on how she and her husband changed the Knepp Estate from a failing dairy farm into a flourishing wildlife haven. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the part for the next generation?” questions Easton. “So we created a platform and rang up loads of conservation groups and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your property owners wishing to make changes and you are short on capacity?’”
Durant adds the story: “Our entire project was fundamentally based on the idea that there were individuals who were willing to permit a collection of youthful enthusiasts on to their property without strict rules, to decide on major actions that would affect land value
