That manically melodic song of the nightingale is a uncommon occurrence in the UK today, but it's different at this rural location. Four years ago, a single bird could be noticed at this secluded spot in rural Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them singing all night, from several zones,” explains Meg Cookson, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A group of volunteers were residing temporarily at the site, yet the nightingales were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never held a nightingale in his hands before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Ecological restoration is by definition a gradual endeavor, but here at the farm, after only four years, the results are already visible, and audible. The land previously served as a retirement home for animals. Now it’s a example for the youth-led goal: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor nations in the world, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often powerless to halt. Rising temperatures continues, deforestation destroys ecosystems, and another international meeting ends with a disappointing end in Brazil – so who could blame the younger generation for choosing to take matters into their own hands?
Our project was based on the idea that there were people prepared to allow a bunch of young idiots on to their property
“The youth is the most knowledgeable environmentally that there’s historically,” says the Youngwilders’ leader, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the issues, and have played the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a consequence.”
Change of the Site
Now, the organisation is growing across the United Kingdom – and Maple Farm planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and the place we built our community,” explains another co-director, as she gives a overview of the 12-hectare site. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she states, as we move through long grass featuring low scrub, hemmed by forest. “The main visual difference is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, a significant length of it, to make it feel like one landscape.” In the warmer months, they donned protective gear and removed masses of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can irritate the skin. “We’ve planted loads of bush lines,” notes Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just given it space for a little bit. We’ve reduced a lot of livestock impact and observed what’s emerged.”
Low scrub and hedgerows are a perfect songbird home, she comments, although currently they’re managing some of the thorny plants to establish a increased diversity of habitats and to join separate areas of the property. Young saplings will take considerably longer to establish, but young trees from the adjacent woodland are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the group have been setting up barriers to protect them from grazing deer.
Nature Reappears in Droves
In addition to the nightingales – fauna is returning in droves. Lately they’ve spotted reptiles, slowworms, flyers and bugs, notes another co-director, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (similar to a mat over a depression in the earth). “You get snakes and things hiding under there, but it’s probably a bit cold for them now.” Wild homes, constructed from hollowed-out parts of timber and active with wild bees, are attached to some of the trees. The absence of animals has given small creatures opportunity to flourish in the meadows. When they visited this time, comments Bennett, “I’d never observed so numerous insects. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The original founders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and additional members – came together as youth, studying or expressing an concern in environmental science. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was indicating that the safe limit of 1.5C of global heating was seeming unachievable, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the youth protests for climate movement, and campaigner Clover Hogan was addressing young people feeling “environmental stress”. It was also the era of the author's book, on rewilding, on how the authors transformed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a thriving ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what was the part for youth?” says Molly. “So we created a platform and rang up loads of environmental organizations and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your property owners wishing to take action and you don’t have resources?’”
Jack continues the account: “Our complete project was basically founded on the belief that there were landowners who were willing to permit a collection of youthful enthusiasts on to their property freely, to make fairly massive actions that would impact land value
