🔗 Share this article

That manically melodic song of the songbird is a uncommon occurrence in Britain nowadays, but it's different at this rural location. Back in 2020, a lone bird could be heard at this remote place in rural Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them calling all night, from five different territories,” explains one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A band of volunteers were residing temporarily at the property, but the birds were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the birds the next morning, Cookson states: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his care before. He was emotional.”

Ecological Restoration Progresses at the Surrey Site

Rewilding is by nature a slow business, but at this site at the farm, after only several seasons, the results are already visible, and hearable. The property used to be a haven for animals. Currently it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to hasten ecological restoration, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the planet, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often unable to halt. Climate change advances, tree clearing eliminates ecosystems, and yet another climate conference comes to a disappointing end in the host country – so who could blame the younger generation for wishing to take matters into their own hands?

The initiative was based on the notion that there were individuals ready to allow a bunch of youthful amateurs on to their land

“The youth is the most knowledgeable ecologically that there’s historically,” explains the group's leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have added the smallest part to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a result.”

Change of the Site

Today, the group is growing across the UK – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and where we built our network,” says Molly Easton, as she provides a tour of the 30-acre site. “This used to be divided plots,” she states, as we stroll through overgrown meadows dotted with low scrub, surrounded by mature woodland. “The primary visual difference is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like one environment.” In the summer, they donned protective gear and cleared masses of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve introduced numerous of bush lines,” notes Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve reduced a large part of livestock impact and noticed what’s sprung up.”

Bushes and natural fences are a perfect nightingale habitat, she explains, but now they’re trimming some of the brambles to develop a greater range of habitats and to link up different sections of the land. Young saplings will take considerably longer to establish, but saplings from the nearby trees are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the team have been installing protectors to protect them from wildlife.

Wildlife Comes Back in Abundance

There's more than the nightingales – fauna is returning in droves. Recently they’ve seen reptiles, slowworms, bats and invertebrates, explains Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their survey equipment (such as a cover over a small hollow in the ground). “You discover snakes and wildlife residing under there, but it’s probably a slightly cool for them now.” Organic beehives, constructed from empty pieces of wood and active with pollinators, are fixed to some of the trees. The removal of animals has given insects space to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they explored this summer, states the director, “I’d not ever encountered so many lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”

Beginnings of the Project

The first founders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and two others – formed as students, studying or having an concern in environmental science. In 2019, the IPCC was indicating that the target of 1.5C of global heating was appearing unachievable, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the school strikes for environmental action, and advocate a speaker was addressing young people suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the time of a writer's publication, Wilding, on how the authors revitalized the a Sussex location from a struggling agricultural business into a successful ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what could be the function for the next generation?” says Easton. “So we made a online presence and called loads of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your landowners wishing to do something and you are short on capacity?’”

Durant continues the narrative: “Our complete initiative was essentially premised on the belief that there were people who were ready to permit a collection of youthful enthusiasts on to their estate without strict rules, to make significant choices that would change land value