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That manically melodic melody of the nightingale is a scarce presence in the UK today, however it's different at this rural location. Back in 2020, a lone bird could be detected at this remote spot in rural Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them singing all night, from five different territories,” explains Meg Cookson, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A group of participants were camping out at the location, but the birds were so loud, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” comments an engagement lead. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, Cookson states: “He’d never handled a songbird in his care before. He was crying.”

Rewilding Progresses at the Surrey Site

Rewilding is by nature a lengthy process, but in this place at Maple Farm, after merely several seasons, the results are already evident, and hearable. The property was once a retirement home for horses. Today it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted nations in the globe, and to engage youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a global warming issue they are often ineffectual to stop. Climate change advances, habitat loss eliminates ecosystems, and yet another international meeting ends with a frustrating outcome in the host country – so who could blame young people for wanting to act independently?

Our organisation was founded on the idea that there were people prepared to allow a group of young amateurs on to their estate

“The newer cohort is the most knowledgeable ecologically that there’s previously,” says the Youngwilders’ founder, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have contributed the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a result.”

Change of the Site

Now, the initiative is taking root across the United Kingdom – and the original site planted the seed, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and where we built our connections,” notes a founding member, as she provides a tour of the expansive land. “This was previously six different fields,” she states, as we walk through long grass filled with low scrub, hemmed by established trees. “The primary visual change is that we’ve removed all the fencing, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like a unified area.” In the recent season, they wore special clothing and removed large amounts of giant hogweed, an aggressive flora that can irritate the skin. “We’ve planted numerous of natural barriers,” notes the director. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve removed a large part of grazing pressure and seen what’s come up.”

Underbrush and natural fences are a perfect songbird home, she comments, although today they’re trimming some of the thorny plants to establish a increased range of ecosystems and to link up different sections of the land. Young saplings will take considerably longer to take root, but new growth from the adjacent trees are already taking root in the open areas; the team have been placing barriers to shield them from grazing deer.

Nature Comes Back in Abundance

There's more than the nightingales – fauna is returning in abundance. Lately they’ve observed grass snakes, creatures, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, explains a team member, as he uncovers one of their monitoring tools (like a cover over a small hollow in the earth). “You discover creatures and things residing under there, but it’s possibly a bit chilly for them now.” Organic nests, constructed from carved pieces of tree trunk and buzzing with insects, are fixed to some of the trees. The removal of grazing horses has allowed invertebrates room to flourish in the long grass. When they visited this season, comments Bennett, “I’d not once seen so many insects. There were just masses of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”

Beginnings of the Project

The original Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Molly and more individuals – formed as youth, focusing on or having an concern in environmental science. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forecasting that the safe limit of 1.5C of global heating was looking unachievable, Greta Thunberg was guiding the demonstrations for climate movement, and advocate a speaker was talking about young people experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the period of a writer's book, on rewilding, on how the authors changed the a nearby property from a struggling dairy farm into a successful wildlife haven. “We were super-inspired by the case study, but what was the role for young people?” questions Easton. “So we developed a online presence and called loads of conservation groups and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your landowners wishing to do something and you are short on time?’”

Jack continues the story: “Our complete project was essentially founded on the notion that there were landowners who were prepared to allow a bunch of young enthusiasts on to their property without strict rules, to make fairly massive actions that would impact land value