The richly complex melody of the nightingale is a uncommon presence in the UK nowadays, but not at Maple Farm. Back in 2020, a solitary bird could be detected at this secluded location in rural Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them calling all night, from several zones,” explains a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A group of volunteers were camping out at the property, however the birds were so loud, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” comments an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the regional nature organization came to help them net and ring one of the birds the next morning, she states: “He’d never held a nightingale in his hands before. He was crying.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by its very essence a lengthy process, but at this site at this property, after just four years, the results are already visible, and audible. The property previously served as a retirement home for horses. Today it’s a showpiece for the youth-led mission: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the ecologically impoverished nations in the world, and to engage young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a global warming issue they are often unable to stop. Climate change continues, deforestation damages ecosystems, and one more international meeting ends with a unsatisfactory conclusion in Brazil – so what person could blame young people for wishing to act independently?
Our project was founded on the notion that there were people prepared to allow a group of young enthusiasts on to their land
“The newer cohort is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s historically,” explains the group's leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have played the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a result.”
Revitalization of the Site
Currently, the group is taking root across the United Kingdom – and the original site started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and the place we created our community,” explains another co-director, as she provides a walkthrough of the expansive site. “This used to be six different fields,” she says, as we walk through tall vegetation dotted with bushes, bordered by forest. “The key noticeable change is that we’ve removed all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to create the impression like a unified landscape.” In the summer, they used special clothing and eradicated large amounts of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve established loads of natural barriers,” notes the director. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a short time. We’ve eliminated a large part of grazing pressure and seen what’s come up.”
Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal songbird environment, she comments, however now they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to establish a more range of environments and to connect separate areas of the site. Young saplings will take much more time to establish, but new growth from the nearby woodland are already growing in the fields; the group have been placing guards to protect them from grazing deer.
Nature Comes Back in Large Numbers
It’s not just the nightingales – fauna is reappearing in abundance. Recently they’ve spotted grass snakes, slowworms, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, says another co-director, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (like a cover over a small hollow in the ground). “You get snakes and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s likely a bit chilly for them now.” Organic homes, constructed from hollowed-out pieces of tree trunk and buzzing with insects, are fixed to some of the trees. The absence of animals has allowed small creatures room to flourish in the overgrown areas. When they visited this summer, says the director, “I’d never seen so many insects. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”
Inception of the Project
The original founders – Noah, Durant, Easton and more individuals – formed as youth, focusing on or expressing an passion in ecology. In the recent past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forecasting that the target of 1.5C of climate change was seeming impossible, a prominent figure was leading the school strikes for climate movement, and campaigner a speaker was talking about young people feeling “environmental stress”. It was also the period of the author's book, Wilding, on how she and her husband revitalized the a Sussex location from a failing agricultural business into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what was the role for youth?” asks Easton. “So we created a website and contacted loads of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders wishing to make changes and you don’t have resources?’”
Durant explains the account: “Our entire initiative was fundamentally premised on the notion that there were individuals who were prepared to allow a bunch of young amateurs on to their property freely, to take significant actions that would impact land value
