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The beautifully intricate song of the songbird is a uncommon occurrence in the UK today, but not at this rural location. Back in 2020, a solitary nightingale could be detected at this secluded location in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from multiple areas,” notes Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A band of volunteers were residing temporarily at the location, yet the nightingales were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” comments Layla Mapemba. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so incredible.” An professional from the local conservation group came to help them trap and mark one of the nightingales the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never held a nightingale in his possession before. He was teary.”

Rewilding Progresses at Maple Farm

Nature recovery is by definition a lengthy endeavor, but in this place at Maple Farm, after merely a short period, the results are already visible, and audible. The farm used to be a retirement home for animals. Currently it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the ecologically impoverished countries in the planet, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a environmental emergency they are often ineffectual to prevent. Rising temperatures advances, deforestation destroys ecosystems, and another climate conference ends with a frustrating outcome in the host country – so what person could fault youth for choosing to take matters into their own hands?

The organisation was based on the belief that there were landowners willing to let a collection of young idiots on to their estate

“The youth is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s historically,” states the group's co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have contributed the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a consequence.”

Transformation of the Site

Now, the group is expanding across the United Kingdom – and this location started it all, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and where we established our network,” notes a founding member, as she gives a walkthrough of the 30-acre land. “This was previously divided plots,” she states, as we stroll through long grass filled with low scrub, surrounded by forest. “The main noticeable change is that we’ve removed all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to create the impression like a unified environment.” In the summer, they donned protective gear and removed large amounts of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can irritate the skin. “We’ve planted loads of natural barriers,” says Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a brief period. We’ve reduced a lot of livestock impact and noticed what’s emerged.”

Underbrush and shrub lines are a excellent nightingale habitat, she explains, although today they’re trimming some of the wild growth to develop a greater range of environments and to connect two parts of the site. Young saplings will take considerably longer to establish, but saplings from the adjacent woodland are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the team have been setting up guards to safeguard them from animals.

Wildlife Returns in Droves

It’s not just the songbirds – fauna is coming back in large numbers. Recently they’ve spotted serpents, legless lizards, bats and insects, says a team member, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (similar to a mat over a depression in the earth). “You discover snakes and things residing under there, but it’s possibly a bit cool for them now.” Organic homes, built using empty sections of wood and buzzing with insects, are strapped to some of the trees. The removal of livestock has provided small creatures opportunity to prosper in the long grass. When they visited this season, says he, “I’d not ever encountered so many lepidoptera. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”

Origins of the Project

The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and two others – came together as youth, pursuing or having an interest in ecology. In that year, the climate experts was forecasting that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of climate change was seeming out of reach, Greta Thunberg was leading the school strikes for eco-awareness, and advocate a speaker was discussing the generation suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of a writer's publication, Wilding, on how they changed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful agricultural business into a thriving ecosystem. “We were super-inspired by the example, but what was the part for the next generation?” questions Easton. “So we developed a website and called many of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders wanting to take action and you are short on time?’”

Durant adds the narrative: “Our whole initiative was essentially premised on the belief that there were individuals who were willing to permit a collection of youthful amateurs on to their land without strict rules, to take significant actions that would change land value