The richly complex song of the nightingale is a rare occurrence in Britain these days, yet not at this rural location. Four years ago, a single nightingale could be heard at this secluded spot in rural Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from several zones,” notes a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the location, yet the birds were so boisterous, “we stayed awake all night,” remarks Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the birds the next morning, Cookson recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his hands before. He was teary.”
Habitat Revival Progresses at This Location
Nature recovery is by nature a slow endeavor, but here at the farm, after only four years, the outcomes are already apparent, and hearable. The land previously served as a haven for horses. Today it’s a model for the youth-led mission: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the most nature-depleted nations in the globe, and to link youth (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to halt. Rising temperatures persists, habitat loss destroys natural habitats, and yet another international meeting ends with a disappointing conclusion in the host country – so who could blame the younger generation for wanting to initiate change themselves?
The organisation was based on the belief that there were people ready to let a group of young enthusiasts on to their property
“The newer cohort is the most informed in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” states the group's founder, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have added the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a result.”
Transformation of the Property
Now, the initiative is expanding across the United Kingdom – and this location started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and the place we created our connections,” explains another co-director, as she offers a overview of the 30-acre site. “This was previously six different fields,” she comments, as we stroll through long grass featuring low scrub, hemmed by mature woodland. “The main visible transformation is that we’ve removed all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like one landscape.” In the warmer months, they wore special clothing and eradicated large amounts of harmful weeds, an non-native plant that can burn the skin. “We’ve introduced many of bush lines,” says the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a lot of grazing pressure and noticed what’s come up.”
Low scrub and hedgerows are a excellent songbird habitat, she explains, however now they’re trimming some of the thorny plants to create a greater diversity of habitats and to join two parts of the property. New trees will take considerably longer to grow, but saplings from the nearby woodland are already growing in the open areas; the crew have been placing guards to shield them from animals.
Wildlife Returns in Large Numbers
There's more than the songbirds – fauna is returning in droves. Lately they’ve seen grass snakes, legless lizards, bats and insects, says another co-director, as he raises one of their reptile mats (similar to a doormat over a indentation in the ground). “You get creatures and animals residing under there, but it’s possibly a bit cold for them now.” Organic nests, made from hollowed-out pieces of tree trunk and active with wild bees, are fixed to some of the trees. The removal of livestock has provided insects space to flourish in the meadows. When they visited this time, comments Bennett, “I’d not ever seen so many lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is occurring?’”
Origins of the Initiative
The initial participants – Noah, Jack, Molly and additional members – came together as students, focusing on or having an interest in environmental science. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forecasting that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of global heating was looking unachievable, Greta Thunberg was leading the youth protests for climate movement, and activist Clover Hogan was talking about the generation experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s publication, Wilding, on how they changed the Knepp Estate from a failing farm into a flourishing ecosystem. “We were super-inspired by the Knepp story, but what was the part for young people?” questions Molly. “So we created a platform and rang up loads of wildlife trusts and were like, ‘Do you sometimes get your property owners wanting to make changes and you lack time?’”
Durant continues the narrative: “Our entire organisation was essentially founded on the idea that there were landowners who were prepared to allow a group of young amateurs on to their property freely, to decide on significant decisions that would affect land value