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That manically melodic melody of the songbird is a rare sound in the UK nowadays, yet it's different at Maple Farm. Four years ago, a single bird could be detected at this secluded place in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were all around. “We were hearing them singing all night, from several zones,” notes Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A band of Youngwilders were camping out at the property, but the birds were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the regional nature organization came to help them net and ring one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was teary.”

Rewilding Progresses at Maple Farm

Ecological restoration is by definition a slow endeavor, but in this place at this property, after only a short period, the outcomes are already visible, and noticeable. The land was once a retirement home for horses. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to hasten habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished countries in the globe, and to link youth (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often unable to halt. Climate change continues, deforestation damages natural habitats, and one more international meeting ends with a disappointing conclusion in abroad – so who could fault young people for wishing to act independently?

The project was premised on the idea that there were landowners ready to permit a collection of young amateurs on to their land

“The youth is the most informed in terms of nature that there’s historically,” says the group's leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the issues, and have played the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a consequence.”

Change of the Property

Today, the organisation is growing across the UK – and this location was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and the place we established our connections,” says a founding member, as she gives a tour of the 12-hectare site. “This once consisted of six different fields,” she states, as we stroll through long grass filled with low scrub, surrounded by established trees. “The key visual transformation is that we’ve taken out all the fencing, a significant length of it, to create the impression like one environment.” In the summer, they donned hazmat suits and cleared significant quantities of giant hogweed, an aggressive flora that can burn the skin. “We’ve planted numerous of hedgerows,” explains Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve reduced a lot of grazing pressure and observed what’s emerged.”

Bushes and shrub lines are a excellent songbird habitat, she explains, however today they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to establish a more variety of ecosystems and to join two parts of the land. Young saplings will take considerably longer to take root, but young trees from the adjacent woodland are already taking root in the fields; the crew have been setting up guards to protect them from wildlife.

Nature Reappears in Abundance

It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is returning in abundance. Recently they’ve spotted reptiles, legless lizards, bats and insects, notes Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (like a doormat over a indentation in the ground). “You get creatures and animals sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cold for them now.” Organic homes, built using empty parts of timber and active with wild bees, are attached to some of the woodland. The lack of grazing horses has given small creatures opportunity to flourish in the long grass. When they came to this season, comments Bennett, “I’d not ever observed so countless butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”

Inception of the Movement

The initial founders – Noah, Jack, Molly and additional members – formed as students, pursuing or sharing an interest in ecology. In 2019, the IPCC was predicting that the safe limit of 1.5C of climate change was looking out of reach, Greta Thunberg was guiding the school strikes for eco-awareness, and campaigner Clover Hogan was talking about youth suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s publication, on rewilding, on how the authors changed the a Sussex location from a unsuccessful farm into a thriving wildlife haven. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the role for the next generation?” asks Easton. “So we developed a platform and rang up many of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders wishing to take action and you are short on time?’”

Durant continues the story: “Our entire project was essentially premised on the notion that there were individuals who were willing to permit a bunch of young idiots on to their estate indiscriminately, to take major actions that would change land value