The beautifully intricate melody of the songbird is a uncommon sound in England these days, however not at the Surrey site. Previously, a lone nightingale could be heard at this secluded place in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from five different territories,” notes Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the Youngwilders. A group of volunteers were staying overnight at the property, yet the birds were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks an engagement lead. “We were all exhausted 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 songbirds the next morning, she remembers: “He’d never held a songbird in his hands before. He was crying.”
Habitat Revival Speeds Up at Maple Farm
Rewilding is by nature a lengthy process, but here at this property, after merely four years, the outcomes are already evident, and audible. The land previously served as a retirement home for equines. Today it’s a example for the Youngwilders’ goal: to hasten habitat revival, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the world, and to connect the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to prevent. Climate change persists, tree clearing eliminates wildlife homes, and yet another climate conference ends with a disappointing conclusion in abroad – so who could blame youth for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
The initiative was based on the belief that there were people ready to permit a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their land
“The newer cohort is the most informed environmentally that there’s historically,” explains the Youngwilders’ leader, one organizer. They are also “the deeply concerned in the problems, and have added the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a consequence.”
Transformation of the Site
Now, the initiative is expanding across the UK – and Maple Farm started it all, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and where we built our connections,” says Molly Easton, as she provides a overview of the 30-acre property. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she says, as we walk through tall vegetation filled with low scrub, surrounded by forest. “The key visible transformation is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, a significant length of it, to create the impression like a unified landscape.” In the warmer months, they donned hazmat suits and eradicated significant quantities of harmful weeds, an non-native plant that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve established numerous of natural barriers,” says Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve eliminated a lot of grazing pressure and observed what’s come up.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a perfect nightingale home, she explains, however currently they’re managing some of the brambles to develop a more diversity of habitats and to connect separate areas of the land. Fresh plantings will take much more time to grow, but young trees from the adjacent woodland are already taking root in the open areas; the group have been installing protectors to shield them from animals.
Nature Returns in Large Numbers
In addition to the songbirds – animals is coming back in large numbers. Recently they’ve spotted serpents, creatures, flyers and bugs, explains a team member, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (such as a mat over a small hollow in the earth). “You find creatures and animals residing under there, but it’s possibly a bit cold for them now.” Wild homes, constructed from carved pieces of timber and humming with wild bees, are fixed to some of the plants. The lack of grazing horses has provided small creatures opportunity to thrive in the meadows. When they visited this season, says the director, “I’d never observed so numerous insects. There were just masses of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The first founders – Noah, Jack, Easton and additional members – formed as youth, studying or expressing an concern in ecology. In that year, the IPCC was indicating that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of global heating was appearing impossible, a prominent figure was guiding the school strikes for climate movement, and campaigner another voice was talking about young people feeling “eco-worry”. It was also the time of a writer's publication, on rewilding, on how they changed the a Sussex location from a failing dairy farm into a successful ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what was the part for the next generation?” says Molly. “So we made a website and contacted loads of wildlife trusts and were like, ‘Do you occasionally get your property owners wishing to make changes and you don’t have resources?’”
Jack adds the account: “Our whole organisation was fundamentally based on the belief that there were landowners who were prepared to let a group of young amateurs on to their land freely, to take fairly massive decisions that would impact land value
