That manically melodic melody of the songbird is a rare occurrence in the UK these days, yet it's different at Maple Farm. Back in 2020, a single nightingale could be detected at this hidden location in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from several zones,” notes one ecologist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A group of volunteers were residing temporarily at the location, but the birds were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” says a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so incredible.” An specialist from the local conservation group came to help them trap and mark one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist states: “He’d never held a nightingale in his hands before. He was crying.”
Habitat Revival Speeds Up at This Location
Rewilding is by definition a lengthy business, but here at Maple Farm, after just several seasons, the results are already apparent, and hearable. The land used to be a sanctuary for horses. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ goal: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the planet, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to halt. Rising temperatures persists, habitat loss eliminates natural habitats, and another international meeting draws to a disappointing conclusion in abroad – so who could criticize young people for wishing to initiate change themselves?
The project was premised on the belief that there were individuals willing to permit a bunch of young idiots on to their property
“The youth is the most informed environmentally that there’s previously,” says the Youngwilders’ leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have played the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected most as a consequence.”
Transformation of the Site
Today, the organisation is expanding across the United Kingdom – and the original site planted the seed, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we established our connections,” explains a founding member, as she gives a walkthrough of the 30-acre land. “This used to be six different fields,” she states, as we move through long grass featuring shrubs, bordered by mature woodland. “The key noticeable difference is that we’ve removed all the barriers, a significant length of it, to make it feel like a unified landscape.” In the warmer months, they donned special clothing and eradicated masses of invasive plants, an invasive species that can burn the skin. “We’ve planted many of hedgerows,” explains Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve reduced a significant amount of animal feeding and seen what’s come up.”
Low scrub and hedgerows are a excellent songbird environment, she says, although now they’re trimming some of the wild growth to establish a greater range of ecosystems and to connect two parts of the land. Young saplings will take a while to grow, but new growth from the nearby trees are already growing in the fields; the group have been setting up protectors to safeguard them from grazing deer.
Animals Comes Back in Abundance
It’s not just the songbirds – fauna is reappearing in abundance. This year they’ve spotted reptiles, creatures, bats and bugs, says a team member, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (similar to a doormat over a small hollow in the soil). “You get creatures and things sheltering under there, but it’s probably a slightly chilly for them now.” Wild beehives, made from empty pieces of tree trunk and active with insects, are strapped to some of the woodland. The removal of grazing horses has allowed small creatures opportunity to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they visited this summer, states the director, “I’d not once encountered so countless lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Initiative
The initial participants – Bennett, Durant, Molly and additional members – came together as students, studying or having an interest in nature. In 2019, the IPCC was predicting that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of global heating was seeming unachievable, the activist was guiding the youth protests for environmental action, and advocate another voice was addressing youth suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of a writer's book, on rewilding, on how she and her husband changed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful agricultural business into a successful natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what could be the role for the next generation?” asks Molly. “So we created a platform and contacted loads of environmental organizations and were like, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners wishing to do something and you lack resources?’”
Durant adds the story: “Our whole project was fundamentally premised on the idea that there were people who were willing to allow a group of young amateurs on to their land without strict rules, to make significant choices that would change land value
