That richly complex melody of the nightingale is a scarce occurrence in the UK today, yet not at this rural location. Previously, a lone nightingale could be heard at this secluded spot in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from several zones,” says Meg Cookson, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A team of volunteers were camping out at the property, however the birds were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was crying.”
Habitat Revival Progresses at Maple Farm
Rewilding is by nature a slow business, but here at this property, after only a short period, the changes are already evident, and hearable. The property used to be a retirement home for equines. Currently it’s a model for the youth-led purpose: to speed up ecological restoration, in one of the ecologically impoverished regions in the world, 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 halt. Rising temperatures continues, deforestation destroys natural habitats, and one more international meeting ends with a disappointing end in Brazil – so what person could fault the younger generation for wanting to initiate change themselves?
Our project was premised on the belief that there were individuals ready to let a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their land
“The newer cohort is the best educated ecologically that there’s historically,” explains the Youngwilders’ leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have added the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a result.”
Change of the Landscape
Currently, the group is growing across the United Kingdom – and Maple Farm planted the seed, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we established our network,” explains a founding member, as she offers a walkthrough of the 12-hectare site. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she states, as we walk through tall vegetation filled with low scrub, hemmed by forest. “The key visual change is that we’ve removed all the fencing, a significant length of it, to give the sense like one area.” In the recent season, they used special clothing and eradicated significant quantities of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can burn the body. “We’ve established many of hedgerows,” notes she. “But the primary focus is we’ve just given it space for a little bit. We’ve removed a large part of grazing pressure and seen what’s emerged.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a excellent nightingale environment, she says, but today they’re cutting back some of the brambles to develop a more range of environments and to link up different sections of the site. Young saplings will take a while to grow, but saplings from the adjacent trees are already taking root in the meadows; the group have been installing barriers to protect them from animals.
Wildlife Returns in Abundance
In addition to the nightingales – animals is coming back in large numbers. Lately they’ve seen grass snakes, slowworms, bats and insects, explains a team member, as he uncovers one of their monitoring tools (such as a mat over a small hollow in the soil). “You discover reptiles and animals residing under there, but it’s possibly a bit cool for them now.” Organic beehives, constructed from empty pieces of tree trunk and humming with wild bees, are strapped to some of the plants. The removal of livestock has given invertebrates opportunity to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they visited this time, says he, “I’d never encountered so countless butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The initial participants – Noah, Jack, Molly and two others – came together as students, studying or expressing an concern in nature. In 2019, the climate experts was forecasting that the target of one and a half degrees of global heating was looking out of reach, a prominent figure was guiding the demonstrations for environmental action, and campaigner Clover Hogan was discussing young people suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s book, Wilding, on how they revitalized the Knepp Estate from a failing farm into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were super-inspired by the Knepp story, but what was the role for the next generation?” says Molly. “So we developed a online presence and called many of conservation groups and were like, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders wishing to make changes and you are short on time?’”
Durant adds the story: “Our entire organisation was essentially premised on the notion that there were landowners who were ready to permit a bunch of youthful idiots on to their property without strict rules, to make fairly massive choices that would impact land value
