The manically melodic song of the songbird is a uncommon occurrence in Britain today, but it's different at this rural location. Back in 2020, a solitary nightingale could be heard at this remote place in rural Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from several zones,” explains Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A group of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the location, yet the birds were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, Cookson states: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his care before. He was teary.”
Ecological Restoration Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Ecological restoration is by its very essence a gradual business, but at this site at this property, after just four years, the changes are already evident, and hearable. The property was once a haven for equines. Today it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished countries in the world, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often ineffectual to prevent. Climate change advances, habitat loss eliminates wildlife homes, and one more Cop summit draws to a disappointing conclusion in the host country – so who could criticize young people for wishing to take matters into their own hands?
Our initiative was founded on the notion that there were people prepared to allow a bunch of young enthusiasts on to their land
“The youth is the most informed ecologically that there’s ever been,” explains the Youngwilders’ co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have contributed the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a result.”
Change of the Property
Currently, the organisation is taking root across the UK – and the original site planted the seed, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we established our community,” explains another co-director, as she offers a overview of the 30-acre site. “This was previously multiple separate areas,” she states, as we move through long grass dotted with shrubs, surrounded by established trees. “The main visible difference is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like a unified landscape.” In the warmer months, they used hazmat suits and removed masses of invasive plants, an invasive species that can irritate the skin. “We’ve established loads of natural barriers,” says Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just given it space for a brief period. We’ve removed a significant amount of livestock impact and observed what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a excellent songbird habitat, she explains, although today they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to develop a more variety of environments and to join two parts of the property. New trees will take much more time to grow, but new growth from the surrounding oaks are already establishing themselves in the fields; the group have been setting up protectors to shield them from wildlife.
Nature Returns in Droves
It’s not just the nightingales – fauna is reappearing in droves. Lately they’ve spotted grass snakes, creatures, bats and invertebrates, explains another co-director, as he uncovers one of their reptile mats (like a doormat over a depression in the earth). “You get reptiles and wildlife residing under there, but it’s possibly a bit cool for them now.” Natural homes, constructed from carved sections of wood and buzzing with wild bees, are strapped to some of the plants. The lack of grazing horses has given invertebrates room to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they explored this summer, says Bennett, “I’d not ever seen so numerous butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Initiative
The first founders – Noah, Durant, Molly and additional members – came together as students, focusing on or expressing an passion in nature. In the recent past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the safe limit of 1.5C of warming was seeming impossible, the activist was spearheading the school strikes for climate movement, and campaigner another voice was talking about youth suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the time of a writer's work, Wilding, on how she and her husband transformed the Knepp Estate from a struggling dairy farm into a thriving ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what was the part for young people?” questions Easton. “So we developed a online presence and contacted numerous of wildlife trusts and were like, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders wanting to make changes and you lack capacity?’”
Durant explains the narrative: “Our whole organisation was essentially based on the belief that there were people who were prepared to permit a collection of youthful idiots on to their estate without strict rules, to make significant choices that would change land value
