🔗 Share this article

That richly complex melody of the songbird is a uncommon occurrence in Britain today, however it's different at this rural location. Back in 2020, a lone bird could be noticed at this secluded location in rural Surrey; lately, they were all around. “We were hearing them calling all night, from several zones,” says a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A team of volunteers were residing temporarily at the site, however the birds were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” says a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was emotional.”

Rewilding Speeds Up at This Location

Rewilding is by its very essence a lengthy process, but in this place at this property, after just several seasons, the results are already apparent, and hearable. The land was once a haven for equines. Now it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished countries in the globe, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often denied access to, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to stop. Rising temperatures persists, habitat loss destroys ecosystems, and another climate conference draws to a frustrating outcome in the host country – so who could blame young people for wishing to initiate change themselves?

Our project was premised on the idea that there were landowners willing to allow a collection of youthful enthusiasts on to their property

“The youth is the most informed in terms of nature that there’s previously,” explains the group's co-director, one organizer. They are also “the highly invested in the challenges, and have added the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a consequence.”

Transformation of the Landscape

Currently, the organisation is expanding across the UK – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and where we established our network,” explains another co-director, as she offers a overview of the expansive site. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we move through overgrown meadows dotted with bushes, hemmed by mature woodland. “The key visual change is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, a significant length of it, to make it feel like one landscape.” In the summer, they donned hazmat suits and eradicated large amounts of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can harm the body. “We’ve established many of bush lines,” notes she. “But the main thing is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve reduced a lot of animal feeding and observed what’s emerged.”

Bushes and hedgerows are a perfect songbird habitat, she explains, although now they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to establish a more range of ecosystems and to link up different sections of the property. Young saplings will take much more time to establish, but new growth from the nearby oaks are already growing in the open areas; the team have been installing barriers to protect them from animals.

Animals Comes Back in Droves

It’s not just the nightingales – animals is coming back in large numbers. This year they’ve observed grass snakes, slowworms, bats and invertebrates, explains another co-director, as he uncovers one of their reptile mats (such as a doormat over a small hollow in the earth). “You get creatures and things residing under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat chilly for them now.” Wild beehives, constructed from empty pieces of tree trunk and buzzing with insects, are strapped to some of the trees. The lack of grazing horses has allowed insects space to flourish in the long grass. When they explored this summer, states the director, “I’d never seen so numerous lepidoptera. There were just clouds of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”

Beginnings of the Initiative

The first founders – Noah, Jack, Easton and two others – formed as youth, pursuing or having an interest in environmental science. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the target of 1.5C of warming was appearing unachievable, a prominent figure was guiding the school strikes for eco-awareness, and campaigner Clover Hogan was talking about youth experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of the author's book, about nature recovery, on how they changed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful farm into a successful natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the Knepp story, but what could be the function for young people?” says Easton. “So we created a website and called many of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your property owners seeking to make changes and you don’t have capacity?’”

Durant explains the story: “Our whole organisation was essentially premised on the idea that there were people who were prepared to let a group of youthful idiots on to their property without strict rules, to decide on fairly massive choices that would impact land value