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The richly complex song of the nightingale is a scarce sound in England today, however it's different at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a lone bird could be heard at this secluded spot in rural Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them singing all night, from several zones,” notes one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A team of volunteers were staying overnight at the property, yet the birds were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the songbirds the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his care before. He was crying.”

Ecological Restoration Accelerates at the Surrey Site

Nature recovery is by its very essence a gradual endeavor, but here at this property, after just several seasons, the results are already visible, and noticeable. The land previously served as a retirement home for animals. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished regions in the planet, and to engage youth (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to halt. Climate change continues, tree clearing destroys wildlife homes, and yet another international meeting draws to a disappointing conclusion in abroad – so who could fault youth for wishing to initiate change themselves?

Our project was based on the belief that there were people willing to let a collection of young amateurs on to their estate

“The youth is the most knowledgeable ecologically that there’s ever been,” states the group's founder, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have contributed the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a consequence.”

Transformation of the Landscape

Currently, the group is taking root across the Britain – and Maple Farm started it all, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and the place we created our network,” notes a founding member, as she gives a tour of the 30-acre property. “This used to be six different fields,” she says, as we walk through overgrown meadows filled with low scrub, bordered by forest. “The primary visual change is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to give the sense like one landscape.” In the warmer months, they used hazmat suits and cleared masses of harmful weeds, an aggressive flora that can irritate the skin. “We’ve introduced loads of hedgerows,” notes she. “But the primary focus is we’ve just given it space for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of animal feeding and seen what’s sprung up.”

Low scrub and hedgerows are a ideal songbird environment, she comments, however currently they’re managing some of the wild growth to develop a greater variety of environments and to link up two parts of the land. Young saplings will take considerably longer to grow, but saplings from the adjacent oaks are already growing in the meadows; the team have been placing barriers to shield them from grazing deer.

Nature Comes Back in Large Numbers

In addition to the songbirds – fauna is coming back in abundance. Recently they’ve spotted reptiles, slowworms, nocturnal mammals and insects, notes a team member, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (similar to a doormat over a small hollow in the soil). “You find reptiles and wildlife residing under there, but it’s probably a bit chilly for them now.” Wild nests, made from hollowed-out parts of tree trunk and buzzing with insects, are strapped to some of the plants. The lack of livestock has provided small creatures opportunity to prosper in the long grass. When they visited this time, says Bennett, “I’d not ever observed so numerous butterflies. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is occurring?’”

Beginnings of the Movement

The first Youngwilders – Noah, Durant, Easton and additional members – united as learners, focusing on or sharing an interest in ecology. In that year, the IPCC was forecasting that the target of 1.5C of warming was appearing unachievable, Greta Thunberg was leading the demonstrations for environmental action, and advocate a speaker was addressing the generation suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the period of a writer's book, Wilding, on how the authors changed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were super-inspired by the case study, but what could be the role for the next generation?” questions Easton. “So we made a website and rang up loads of conservation groups and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders wanting to do something and you lack capacity?’”

Jack explains the account: “Our whole initiative was essentially founded on the belief that there were people who were willing to let a collection of young idiots on to their land without strict rules, to make significant choices that would impact land value