The beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a uncommon sound in the UK these days, but not at this rural location. Four years ago, a solitary bird could be noticed at this secluded place in the countryside of 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 band of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the site, yet the nightingales were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so amazing.” An specialist from the local conservation group came to help them capture and tag one of the birds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never touched a songbird in his hands before. He was emotional.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at Maple Farm
Nature recovery is by definition a gradual process, but in this place at this property, after only four years, the changes are already apparent, and noticeable. The farm previously served as a sanctuary for equines. Now it’s a model for the youth-led purpose: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the planet, and to engage youth (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to prevent. Climate change advances, tree clearing destroys ecosystems, and yet another international meeting comes to a disappointing conclusion in abroad – so what person could blame young people for wishing to take matters into their own hands?
Our organisation was founded on the belief that there were people prepared to let a group of young amateurs on to their estate
“The youth is the most informed in terms of nature that there’s previously,” says the group's co-director, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have contributed the smallest part to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a consequence.”
Revitalization of the Landscape
Today, the initiative is taking root across the Britain – and this location planted the seed, in all respects. “It’s the initial project, and where we built our connections,” says Molly Easton, as she offers a walkthrough of the 30-acre site. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we stroll through long grass filled with low scrub, surrounded by forest. “The primary visual transformation is that we’ve removed all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like one area.” In the warmer months, they used special clothing and removed significant quantities of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can harm the skin. “We’ve introduced loads of bush lines,” notes she. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of grazing pressure and noticed what’s sprung up.”
Underbrush and natural fences are a excellent nightingale home, she says, although now they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to establish a increased diversity of environments and to link up two parts of the site. Young saplings will take much more time to establish, but new growth from the adjacent oaks are already taking root in the fields; the group have been setting up protectors to protect them from grazing deer.
Nature Returns in Large Numbers
There's more than the nightingales – fauna is coming back in droves. Lately they’ve observed serpents, legless lizards, bats and bugs, says Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (like a doormat over a small hollow in the earth). “You find snakes and animals hiding under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat chilly for them now.” Wild nests, built using carved pieces of wood and active with pollinators, are strapped to some of the woodland. The removal of animals has provided insects space to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they came to this time, says the director, “I’d not once observed so countless lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The initial founders – Bennett, Durant, Molly and additional members – formed as learners, focusing on or sharing an passion in environmental science. In that year, the IPCC was predicting that the target of one and a half degrees of global heating was appearing out of reach, Greta Thunberg was guiding the school strikes for eco-awareness, and advocate a speaker was talking about young people suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the era of a writer's book, on rewilding, on how the authors transformed the a Sussex location from a struggling agricultural business into a flourishing ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what could be the role for youth?” questions Easton. “So we developed a platform and called loads of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your property owners seeking to make changes and you lack capacity?’”
Jack continues the narrative: “Our entire organisation was fundamentally based on the notion that there were landowners who were willing to allow a group of youthful idiots on to their land freely, to decide on major decisions that would impact land value
