The beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a scarce occurrence in England these days, yet not at Maple Farm. Four years ago, a solitary bird could be heard at this secluded spot in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them calling all night, from several zones,” explains Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A band of volunteers were residing temporarily at the property, but the birds were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An specialist from the local conservation group came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never handled a songbird in his care before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Speeds Up at This Location
Rewilding is by nature a lengthy endeavor, but at this site at the farm, after merely several seasons, the changes are already apparent, and noticeable. The land previously served as a haven for horses. Today it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ goal: to speed up nature recovery, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the planet, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often denied access to, and a global warming issue they are often unable to stop. Rising temperatures persists, habitat loss eliminates natural habitats, and another climate conference ends with a unsatisfactory outcome in abroad – so what person could blame young people for wishing to initiate change themselves?
The project was based on the notion that there were people willing to allow a bunch of youthful amateurs on to their estate
“The youth is the best educated environmentally that there’s ever been,” states the group's founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have contributed the minimal role to their creation, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a outcome.”
Transformation of the Property
Now, the organisation is expanding across the UK – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we built our connections,” notes a founding member, as she provides a tour of the expansive property. “This was previously six different fields,” she comments, as we stroll through overgrown meadows filled with low scrub, hemmed by forest. “The key noticeable change is that we’ve eliminated all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like one landscape.” In the summer, they used special clothing and eradicated large amounts of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can harm the flesh. “We’ve established many of hedgerows,” says she. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve eliminated a large part of grazing pressure and seen what’s come up.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a ideal nightingale habitat, she comments, however now they’re trimming some of the wild growth to establish a more diversity of environments and to join different sections of the site. Fresh plantings will take a while to take root, but young trees from the surrounding oaks are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the crew have been placing barriers to shield them from animals.
Wildlife Reappears in Droves
It’s not just the nightingales – animals is reappearing in large numbers. This year they’ve spotted serpents, slowworms, nocturnal mammals and bugs, notes another co-director, as he uncovers one of their reptile mats (like a doormat over a small hollow in the earth). “You find creatures and things hiding under there, but it’s likely a bit cold for them now.” Wild homes, built using hollowed-out parts of tree trunk and active with wild bees, are fixed to some of the trees. The removal of grazing horses has provided small creatures room to thrive in the meadows. When they came to this time, states he, “I’d never seen so many lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”
Origins of the Project
The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Molly and two others – came together as youth, studying or sharing an concern in environmental science. In 2019, the climate experts was predicting that the safe limit of 1.5C of global heating was looking out of reach, Greta Thunberg was leading the youth protests for eco-awareness, and campaigner Clover Hogan was talking about young people experiencing “eco-worry”. It was also the time of a writer's publication, Wilding, on how the authors changed the a nearby property from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a successful natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the example, but what was the role for the next generation?” says Molly. “So we made a website and contacted many of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your landowners wanting to do something and you don’t have time?’”
Durant continues the account: “Our entire organisation was basically founded on the idea that there were landowners who were ready to permit a group of young idiots on to their land freely, to decide on significant choices that would affect land value
