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The manically melodic call of the nightingale is a rare sound in England these days, yet it's different at Maple Farm. Previously, a lone nightingale could be detected at this remote spot in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from several zones,” explains a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A team of participants were staying overnight at the property, however the birds were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” remarks an engagement lead. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so cool.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the nightingales the next morning, she states: “He’d never held a songbird in his care before. He was emotional.”

Habitat Revival Accelerates at the Surrey Site

Ecological restoration is by nature a slow endeavor, but here at Maple Farm, after merely four years, the changes are already evident, and noticeable. The farm previously served as a haven for horses. Currently it’s a example for the youth-led goal: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the planet, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often denied access to, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to halt. Climate change continues, tree clearing eliminates ecosystems, and one more climate conference ends with a unsatisfactory outcome in Brazil – so what person could criticize the younger generation for wanting to initiate change themselves?

Our initiative was founded on the notion that there were people ready to let a bunch of young enthusiasts on to their land

“The youth is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” states the Youngwilders’ founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the highly invested in the problems, and have played the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a outcome.”

Transformation of the Landscape

Currently, the group is expanding across the UK – and the original site was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and the place we built our network,” says Molly Easton, as she provides a walkthrough of the expansive property. “This used to be divided plots,” she comments, as we walk through long grass dotted with low scrub, bordered by established trees. “The key visible difference is that we’ve eliminated all the barriers, a significant length of it, to make it feel like a unified landscape.” In the summer, they used special clothing and cleared significant quantities of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can harm the body. “We’ve established many of natural barriers,” explains the director. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve reduced a significant amount of grazing pressure and noticed what’s emerged.”

Underbrush and shrub lines are a perfect songbird habitat, she says, although currently they’re managing some of the wild growth to establish a more diversity of environments and to link up two parts of the site. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to establish, but saplings from the adjacent woodland are already growing in the open areas; the group have been setting up guards to protect them from grazing deer.

Nature Comes Back in Large Numbers

There's more than the songbirds – wildlife is returning in large numbers. Recently they’ve spotted serpents, creatures, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, says a team member, as he raises one of their reptile mats (similar to a doormat over a indentation in the ground). “You discover creatures and wildlife residing under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cold for them now.” Natural nests, constructed from empty parts of tree trunk and humming with wild bees, are strapped to some of the trees. The removal of livestock has given insects space to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they explored this time, states he, “I’d never encountered so numerous insects. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”

Beginnings of the Project

The first founders – Noah, Jack, Molly and two others – came together as youth, pursuing or sharing an interest in environmental science. In the recent past, the climate experts was forecasting that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of climate change was looking impossible, the activist was guiding the demonstrations for climate movement, and advocate another voice was discussing young people suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of a writer's work, Wilding, on how they changed the Knepp Estate from a failing agricultural business into a thriving natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what was the function for the next generation?” questions Easton. “So we made a platform and contacted many of conservation groups and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners seeking to take action and you are short on resources?’”

Durant continues the story: “Our complete organisation was fundamentally premised on the belief that there were individuals who were prepared to let a bunch of youthful enthusiasts on to their estate freely, to make fairly massive actions that would affect land value