The manically melodic melody of the songbird is a scarce sound in England nowadays, but not at this rural location. Previously, a solitary nightingale could be noticed at this secluded spot in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from five different territories,” says a lead scientist, top biologist for the eco-activist organization. A group of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the site, but the nightingales were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so amazing.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never handled a songbird in his care before. He was emotional.”
Habitat Revival Speeds Up at This Location
Nature recovery is by definition a gradual business, but here at the farm, after merely four years, the results are already visible, and noticeable. The farm was once a haven for horses. Today it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ mission: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished regions in the world, and to connect the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to prevent. Rising temperatures advances, deforestation eliminates wildlife homes, and yet another climate conference comes to a unsatisfactory outcome in the host country – so what person could fault the younger generation for choosing to initiate change themselves?
Our organisation was founded on the belief that there were individuals willing to let a bunch of young enthusiasts on to their property
“The youth is the most knowledgeable ecologically that there’s historically,” explains the Youngwilders’ founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have played the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a result.”
Revitalization of the Landscape
Now, the group is taking root across the United Kingdom – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we created our network,” explains another co-director, as she provides a tour of the 30-acre property. “This used to be six different fields,” she comments, as we walk through long grass dotted with shrubs, hemmed by established trees. “The key visible transformation is that we’ve removed all the barriers, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like a single landscape.” In the summer, they donned hazmat suits and cleared masses of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can irritate the skin. “We’ve established loads of hedgerows,” notes the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve reduced a lot of animal feeding and noticed what’s come up.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a perfect nightingale home, she comments, although now they’re trimming some of the brambles to develop a more variety of ecosystems and to connect separate areas of the land. Young saplings will take a while to grow, but young trees from the nearby oaks are already growing in the open areas; the team have been placing guards to protect them from wildlife.
Wildlife Returns in Large Numbers
In addition to the nightingales – fauna is coming back in abundance. Recently they’ve spotted grass snakes, legless lizards, flyers and invertebrates, says Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (similar to a doormat over a indentation in the soil). “You find snakes and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s possibly a bit chilly for them now.” Natural beehives, made from hollowed-out parts of wood and humming with wild bees, are attached to some of the trees. The absence of animals has given small creatures room to flourish in the meadows. When they explored this season, comments he, “I’d never seen so countless butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Initiative
The initial founders – Noah, Jack, Easton and more individuals – united as learners, focusing on or having an interest in environmental science. In that year, the climate experts was forecasting that the target of one and a half degrees of climate change was looking impossible, a prominent figure was leading the youth protests for environmental action, and advocate Clover Hogan was addressing the generation feeling “climate anxiety”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s publication, on rewilding, on how she and her husband revitalized the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful farm into a successful ecosystem. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the part for the next generation?” asks Easton. “So we created a platform and rang up loads of conservation groups and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders wanting to take action and you lack time?’”
Durant explains the account: “Our entire initiative was basically founded on the notion that there were people who were prepared to allow a group of young enthusiasts on to their property indiscriminately, to take major choices that would impact land value
