The manically melodic call of the nightingale is a uncommon sound in the UK today, yet not at this rural location. Previously, a lone bird could be detected at this remote location in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were all around. “We were listening to them singing all night, from five different territories,” explains one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the eco-activist organization. A group of participants were staying overnight at the site, yet the birds were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” remarks Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An professional from the local conservation group came to help them capture and tag one of the songbirds the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never held a nightingale in his possession before. He was teary.”
Rewilding is by its very essence a slow endeavor, but here at the farm, after merely a short period, the results are already visible, and hearable. The land previously served as a retirement home for equines. Now it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to accelerate ecological restoration, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the world, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often ineffectual to prevent. Climate change continues, tree clearing destroys natural habitats, and yet another climate conference ends with a unsatisfactory conclusion in Brazil – so who could fault youth for wishing to act independently?
The project was based on the idea that there were landowners willing to let a bunch of youthful enthusiasts on to their estate
“The newer cohort is the most informed environmentally that there’s previously,” states the Youngwilders’ leader, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the problems, and have contributed the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a result.”
Now, the group is taking root across the UK – and the original site was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and the place we built our network,” says a founding member, as she gives a walkthrough of the expansive land. “This was previously multiple separate areas,” she states, as we stroll through overgrown meadows dotted with low scrub, bordered by forest. “The primary visible transformation is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like one landscape.” In the warmer months, they used protective gear and cleared large amounts of invasive plants, an invasive species that can harm the body. “We’ve established loads of bush lines,” notes she. “But the key action is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve removed a large part of animal feeding and noticed what’s sprung up.”
Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal songbird environment, she comments, although now they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to establish a more diversity of environments and to link up two parts of the site. Young saplings will take much more time to take root, but young trees from the nearby trees are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the group have been setting up protectors to protect them from animals.
In addition to the nightingales – animals is coming back in large numbers. Recently they’ve observed serpents, slowworms, bats and bugs, says Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (similar to a cover over a indentation in the earth). “You get creatures and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s possibly a slightly chilly for them now.” Natural beehives, constructed from carved sections of timber and active with pollinators, are attached to some of the woodland. The absence of animals has given small creatures space to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they visited this season, comments the director, “I’d not once seen so many lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
The original founders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and two others – came together as youth, focusing on or sharing an passion in nature. In that year, the IPCC was indicating that the target of 1.5C of warming was seeming impossible, Greta Thunberg was leading the youth protests for eco-awareness, and campaigner a speaker was discussing youth experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s work, on rewilding, on how the authors revitalized the a Sussex location from a struggling farm into a thriving ecosystem. “We were super-inspired by the case study, but what could be the role for the next generation?” asks Molly. “So we made a website and rang up loads of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your property owners seeking to make changes and you are short on time?’”
Jack continues the account: “Our whole initiative was fundamentally premised on the idea that there were people who were ready to allow a bunch of young enthusiasts on to their property indiscriminately, to take major choices that would affect land value
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