The beautifully intricate call of the nightingale is a uncommon occurrence in the UK these days, however not at this rural location. Back in 2020, a solitary nightingale could be detected at this secluded location in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were all around. “We were hearing them calling all night, from multiple areas,” explains a lead scientist, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A team of volunteers were residing temporarily at the property, but the birds were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his hands before. He was crying.”
Rewilding Progresses at This Location
Nature recovery is by definition a gradual process, but in this place at Maple Farm, after merely four years, the outcomes are already evident, and hearable. The property was once a retirement home for animals. Currently it’s a model for the youth-led purpose: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often powerless to halt. Rising temperatures persists, tree clearing destroys natural habitats, and yet another international meeting ends with a unsatisfactory conclusion in the host country – so what person could blame the younger generation for wishing to act independently?
The project was founded on the idea that there were individuals willing to let a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their land
“The newer cohort is the most informed in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” says the group's co-director, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the issues, and have played the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a result.”
Change of the Site
Currently, the initiative is growing across the UK – and the original site started it all, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and where we built our community,” says Molly Easton, as she gives a walkthrough of the 12-hectare site. “This was previously divided plots,” she says, as we walk through overgrown meadows dotted with bushes, surrounded by mature woodland. “The key visible change is that we’ve removed all the barriers, a significant length of it, to give the sense like a single landscape.” In the recent season, they wore hazmat suits and eradicated significant quantities of harmful weeds, an invasive species that can harm the skin. “We’ve introduced loads of bush lines,” notes she. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve removed a lot of animal feeding and seen what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and hedgerows are a ideal nightingale home, she explains, however now they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to establish a more variety of environments and to connect two parts of the land. Young saplings will take a while to grow, but young trees from the nearby oaks are already growing in the meadows; the team have been placing guards to protect them from grazing deer.
Nature Comes Back in Abundance
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is returning in droves. Lately they’ve observed grass snakes, legless lizards, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, notes another co-director, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (such as a doormat over a indentation in the earth). “You get reptiles and things sheltering under there, but it’s likely a somewhat chilly for them now.” Organic nests, built using carved pieces of tree trunk and active with wild bees, are fixed to some of the trees. The absence of animals has given invertebrates space to thrive in the long grass. When they explored this time, states he, “I’d not ever encountered so many butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and additional members – came together as students, pursuing or having an passion in environmental science. In the recent past, the climate experts was forecasting that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of climate change was appearing out of reach, Greta Thunberg was guiding the youth protests for eco-awareness, and advocate a speaker was talking about the generation suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the era of a writer's work, Wilding, on how they transformed the Knepp Estate from a failing dairy farm into a successful wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what could be the role for youth?” asks Molly. “So we created a website and rang up many of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you sometimes get your property owners seeking to take action and you are short on capacity?’”
Jack continues the narrative: “Our complete initiative was basically founded on the belief that there were individuals who were prepared to let a collection of youthful enthusiasts on to their property without strict rules, to make fairly massive choices that would change land value
