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The richly complex call of the nightingale is a scarce presence in England nowadays, yet it's different at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a lone bird could be heard at this hidden location in rural Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them calling all night, from five different territories,” notes Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A group of Youngwilders were camping out at the location, however the nightingales were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” comments an engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the local conservation group came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, Cookson recalls: “He’d never handled a songbird in his care before. He was teary.”

Habitat Revival Progresses at the Surrey Site

Rewilding is by nature a lengthy business, but in this place at this property, after only a short period, the changes are already visible, and audible. The land used to be a sanctuary for horses. Now it’s a model for the youth-led goal: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted nations in the globe, and to link youth (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to prevent. Rising temperatures advances, deforestation eliminates wildlife homes, and another international meeting comes to a disappointing conclusion in Brazil – so what person could criticize young people for wishing to act independently?

The organisation was premised on the belief that there were individuals prepared to let a collection of young enthusiasts on to their estate

“The younger generation is the best educated environmentally that there’s ever been,” explains the group's co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have added the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a result.”

Revitalization of the Site

Now, the group is taking root across the UK – and Maple Farm planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and where we built our community,” explains a founding member, as she gives a tour of the 30-acre land. “This once consisted of divided plots,” she says, as we move through tall vegetation filled with low scrub, hemmed by forest. “The main visual difference is that we’ve eliminated all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to create the impression like a unified environment.” In the summer, they donned special clothing and eradicated large amounts of harmful weeds, an non-native plant that can burn the skin. “We’ve introduced many of bush lines,” says Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve eliminated a large part of animal feeding and noticed what’s sprung up.”

Bushes and natural fences are a perfect nightingale home, she says, although currently they’re managing some of the thorny plants to create a more range of ecosystems and to connect separate areas of the land. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to establish, but new growth from the adjacent trees are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the group have been placing guards to protect them from grazing deer.

Nature Returns in Large Numbers

It’s not just the nightingales – animals is reappearing in abundance. Recently they’ve seen reptiles, slowworms, flyers and bugs, explains a team member, as he raises one of their survey equipment (like a cover over a small hollow in the ground). “You get reptiles and things residing under there, but it’s possibly a slightly cold for them now.” Natural nests, made from empty parts of timber and active with wild bees, are attached to some of the trees. The lack of grazing horses has allowed invertebrates space to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they visited this time, says the director, “I’d not ever seen so numerous butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were wondering, ‘What is happening?’”

Beginnings of the Initiative

The first Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and additional members – united as students, studying or expressing an concern in nature. In 2019, the climate experts was indicating that the target of one and a half degrees of climate change was looking impossible, Greta Thunberg was guiding the youth protests for environmental action, and activist another voice was talking about youth experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the period of the author's book, on rewilding, on how they revitalized the a Sussex location from a struggling agricultural business into a successful natural habitat. “We were super-inspired by the Knepp story, but what was the part for the next generation?” asks Easton. “So we developed a platform and contacted many of conservation groups and were like, ‘Do you sometimes get your property owners seeking to take action and you lack time?’”

Durant explains the account: “Our whole project was basically based on the notion that there were landowners who were ready to let a collection of youthful idiots on to their estate indiscriminately, to take major actions that would change land value