The beautifully intricate call of the nightingale is a rare presence in England nowadays, yet not at Maple Farm. Back in 2020, a solitary bird could be heard at this secluded spot in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were hearing them singing all night, from five different territories,” says Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A team of volunteers were staying overnight at the property, yet the birds were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” comments an engagement lead. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the local conservation group came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, Cookson states: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his possession before. He was crying.”
Habitat Revival Speeds Up at Maple Farm
Rewilding is by nature a lengthy endeavor, but at this site at the farm, after merely several seasons, the outcomes are already evident, and hearable. The property was once a sanctuary for animals. Currently it’s a model for the youth-led mission: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished regions in the planet, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to prevent. Climate change continues, deforestation damages natural habitats, and yet another climate conference ends with a frustrating end in the host country – so what person could criticize the younger generation for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
Our organisation was based on the idea that there were people ready to allow a collection of young amateurs on to their estate
“The youth is the most informed ecologically that there’s ever been,” states the group's leader, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have added the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a result.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Today, the initiative is expanding across the UK – and Maple Farm planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and where we established our community,” notes another co-director, as she provides a walkthrough of the 30-acre property. “This was previously multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we stroll through long grass featuring low scrub, bordered by mature woodland. “The main noticeable transformation is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like a single area.” In the warmer months, they used hazmat suits and removed large amounts of harmful weeds, an aggressive flora that can burn the flesh. “We’ve planted numerous of natural barriers,” explains the director. “But the key action is we’ve just given it space for a brief period. We’ve removed a lot of grazing pressure and noticed what’s emerged.”
Bushes and hedgerows are a ideal songbird habitat, she says, however now they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to establish a greater range of habitats and to link up two parts of the land. Fresh plantings will take a while to establish, but saplings from the adjacent trees are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the crew have been installing protectors to safeguard them from animals.
Animals Returns in Droves
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is reappearing in large numbers. Recently they’ve seen grass snakes, creatures, bats and bugs, notes Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (like a mat over a small hollow in the soil). “You find snakes and things residing under there, but it’s possibly a bit cool for them now.” Wild nests, constructed from empty sections of tree trunk and active with pollinators, are fixed to some of the plants. The removal of animals has allowed insects space to prosper in the meadows. When they came to this time, says he, “I’d not ever observed so numerous butterflies. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”
Inception of the Movement
The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and more individuals – united as youth, studying or expressing an interest in ecology. In 2019, the IPCC was indicating that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of global heating was seeming out of reach, the activist was leading the youth protests for climate movement, and activist another voice was addressing young people feeling “environmental stress”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s publication, on rewilding, on how she and her husband transformed the Knepp Estate from a struggling dairy farm into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what could be the role for youth?” says Easton. “So we developed a online presence and called loads of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your property owners wishing to make changes and you don’t have time?’”
Durant adds the account: “Our whole initiative was essentially based on the belief that there were people who were prepared to let a bunch of youthful amateurs on to their estate without strict rules, to take fairly massive actions that would change land value
