That beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a uncommon presence in Britain these days, but not at Maple Farm. Back in 2020, a lone nightingale could be heard at this remote location in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them calling all night, from multiple areas,” says a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A group of Youngwilders were camping out at the site, yet the nightingales were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so incredible.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the nightingales the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never handled a songbird in his care before. He was crying.”
Rewilding Accelerates at This Location
Ecological restoration is by definition a slow business, but at this site at the farm, after only a short period, the changes are already apparent, and noticeable. The property used to be a sanctuary for equines. Currently it’s a model for the youth-led goal: to hasten habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished regions in the world, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often ineffectual to prevent. Rising temperatures advances, tree clearing eliminates wildlife homes, and one more climate conference ends with a frustrating outcome in Brazil – so who could blame youth for choosing to act independently?
Our organisation was based on the idea that there were landowners willing to let a group of young enthusiasts on to their estate
“The younger generation is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” states the group's founder, a key figure. They are also “the highly invested in the challenges, and have added the smallest part to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer the greatest as a result.”
Change of the Landscape
Currently, the group is growing across the United Kingdom – and the original site planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and where we created our community,” notes a founding member, as she offers a overview of the expansive property. “This was previously six different fields,” she says, as we walk through tall vegetation dotted with bushes, hemmed by forest. “The key visible change is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, a significant length of it, to make it feel like a single landscape.” In the summer, they used special clothing and eradicated large amounts of harmful weeds, an non-native plant that can irritate the skin. “We’ve established loads of hedgerows,” explains Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve reduced a large part of livestock impact and seen what’s come up.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a excellent nightingale habitat, she comments, but now they’re trimming some of the wild growth to establish a greater variety of ecosystems and to link up separate areas of the site. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to establish, but new growth from the surrounding trees are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the crew have been placing guards to safeguard them from grazing deer.
Nature Reappears in Large Numbers
There's more than the songbirds – wildlife is returning in abundance. Recently they’ve observed reptiles, creatures, flyers and bugs, notes another co-director, as he uncovers one of their survey equipment (like a doormat over a indentation in the earth). “You find reptiles and wildlife residing under there, but it’s likely a bit cold for them now.” Organic homes, built using hollowed-out pieces of tree trunk and active with insects, are strapped to some of the trees. The removal of animals has allowed insects opportunity to flourish in the long grass. When they explored this season, says the director, “I’d never encountered so countless butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were wondering, ‘What is occurring?’”
Origins of the Initiative
The initial Youngwilders – Noah, Durant, Molly and additional members – came together as learners, focusing on or having an passion in ecology. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forecasting that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of climate change was looking impossible, Greta Thunberg was leading the school strikes for climate movement, and activist another voice was addressing young people feeling “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of a writer's work, on rewilding, on how the authors transformed the a Sussex location from a struggling farm into a thriving wildlife haven. “We were super-inspired by the example, but what could be the part for the next generation?” asks Molly. “So we created a platform and called loads of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders seeking to do something and you don’t have capacity?’”
Jack continues the narrative: “Our whole initiative was fundamentally based on the belief that there were people who were prepared to let a bunch of young enthusiasts on to their land without strict rules, to take fairly massive actions that would change land value
