That beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a scarce sound in the UK today, but not at the Surrey site. Previously, a single nightingale could be detected at this hidden spot in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them calling all night, from multiple areas,” notes a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A group of Youngwilders were camping out at the property, but the birds were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” remarks an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the birds the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never touched a songbird in his hands before. He was teary.”
Habitat Revival Progresses at Maple Farm
Rewilding is by its very essence a slow business, but in this place at this property, after merely a short period, the results are already apparent, and audible. The farm previously served as a haven for equines. Today it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the ecologically impoverished countries in the planet, and to link the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often excluded from, and a environmental emergency they are often ineffectual to prevent. Climate change advances, deforestation eliminates natural habitats, and another Cop summit ends with a unsatisfactory conclusion in Brazil – so what person could blame the younger generation for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
Our project was premised on the notion that there were people ready to let a collection of youthful amateurs on to their land
“The youth is the best educated ecologically that there’s historically,” says the group's leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the highly invested in the challenges, and have played the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected most as a consequence.”
Revitalization of the Property
Today, the group is growing across the UK – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and the place we established our community,” says another co-director, as she provides a walkthrough of the expansive land. “This used to be six different fields,” she comments, as we stroll through tall vegetation dotted with low scrub, bordered by mature woodland. “The primary visual difference is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like a single landscape.” In the warmer months, they wore special clothing and eradicated large amounts of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve established loads of natural barriers,” says Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve removed a large part of livestock impact and noticed what’s sprung up.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a ideal songbird habitat, she comments, although currently they’re managing some of the thorny plants to create a more variety of ecosystems and to link up two parts of the land. Young saplings will take a while to establish, but saplings from the nearby trees are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the crew have been setting up barriers to protect them from animals.
Animals Comes Back in Abundance
It’s not just the songbirds – wildlife is reappearing in large numbers. Lately they’ve seen grass snakes, legless lizards, flyers and insects, says a team member, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (such as a cover over a depression in the ground). “You get creatures and things residing under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cold for them now.” Organic homes, made from hollowed-out pieces of wood and buzzing with insects, are fixed to some of the woodland. The removal of animals has provided small creatures space to thrive in the long grass. When they visited this time, says Bennett, “I’d not once seen so many insects. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Inception of the Movement
The original Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Molly and two others – formed as students, focusing on or expressing an concern in nature. In the recent past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was indicating that the safe limit of 1.5C of global heating was seeming out of reach, the activist was spearheading the demonstrations for environmental action, and campaigner a speaker was talking about youth feeling “environmental stress”. It was also the period of the author's work, on rewilding, on how they changed the Knepp Estate from a failing agricultural business into a successful wildlife haven. “We were highly motivated by the Knepp story, but what was the function for the next generation?” questions Easton. “So we developed a online presence and contacted numerous of environmental organizations and were asking, ‘Do you sometimes get your property owners wishing to do something and you lack time?’”
Durant adds the story: “Our entire project was essentially premised on the notion that there were landowners who were willing to allow a collection of youthful enthusiasts on to their estate indiscriminately, to make significant choices that would affect land value
