The richly complex melody of the songbird is a scarce occurrence in the UK today, however not at Maple Farm. Back in 2020, a solitary bird could be heard at this hidden spot in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them singing all night, from multiple areas,” says Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the eco-activist organization. A group of participants were camping out at the property, but the birds were so boisterous, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the birds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never held a nightingale in his care before. He was emotional.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at This Location
Rewilding is by definition a lengthy process, but in this place at the farm, after just four years, the results are already apparent, and noticeable. The farm used to be a haven for horses. Currently it’s a example for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to hasten habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the planet, and to engage young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to halt. Global heating continues, habitat loss eliminates natural habitats, and one more international meeting comes to a unsatisfactory conclusion in abroad – so what person could blame young people for choosing to take matters into their own hands?
Our organisation was premised on the idea that there were landowners ready to let a bunch of youthful amateurs on to their property
“The younger generation is the most knowledgeable ecologically that there’s ever been,” states the group's founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the issues, and have added the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a consequence.”
Revitalization of the Site
Today, the group is growing across the UK – and this location started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and where we established our network,” notes Molly Easton, as she provides a walkthrough of the 30-acre site. “This was previously divided plots,” she says, as we walk through tall vegetation filled with shrubs, hemmed by forest. “The main visual change is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like a unified area.” In the recent season, they wore protective gear and cleared masses of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve planted numerous of hedgerows,” notes the director. “But the primary focus is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a lot of grazing pressure and seen what’s sprung up.”
Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal nightingale home, she says, but today they’re managing some of the brambles to establish a more diversity of environments and to connect separate areas of the site. New trees will take considerably longer to establish, but new growth from the nearby oaks are already taking root in the meadows; the group have been installing barriers to protect them from animals.
Wildlife Comes Back in Large Numbers
It’s not just the songbirds – fauna is returning in abundance. This year they’ve observed reptiles, slowworms, bats and bugs, explains another co-director, as he uncovers one of their survey equipment (like a mat over a indentation in the earth). “You get reptiles and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a bit chilly for them now.” Natural beehives, constructed from hollowed-out parts of tree trunk and humming with insects, are fixed to some of the plants. The absence of animals has given invertebrates room to prosper in the meadows. When they came to this season, states he, “I’d not ever seen so numerous insects. There were just clouds of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Molly and two others – formed as youth, focusing on or expressing an passion in environmental science. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was indicating that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of climate change was looking unachievable, a prominent figure was guiding the demonstrations for environmental action, and campaigner another voice was addressing the generation experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s work, Wilding, on how she and her husband transformed the a Sussex location from a unsuccessful agricultural business into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the Knepp story, but what was the function for young people?” questions Molly. “So we made a online presence and called numerous of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners seeking to take action and you don’t have time?’”
Jack continues the narrative: “Our complete project was essentially premised on the notion that there were people who were prepared to allow a bunch of young enthusiasts on to their property indiscriminately, to take fairly massive choices that would impact land value
