That richly complex song of the songbird is a uncommon sound in the UK today, but it's different at this rural location. Previously, a single nightingale could be noticed at this remote spot in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were all around. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from five different territories,” explains one ecologist, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A band of participants were staying overnight at the location, but the nightingales were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the nightingales the next morning, Cookson recalls: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his care before. He was emotional.”
Rewilding Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by nature a slow process, but here at this property, after merely a short period, the outcomes are already visible, and hearable. The farm previously served as a retirement home for animals. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to hasten ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world, and to link the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often denied access to, and a global warming issue they are often unable to stop. Climate change advances, deforestation damages natural habitats, and yet another international meeting ends with a disappointing conclusion in Brazil – so who could blame young people for choosing to initiate change themselves?
The organisation was founded on the belief that there were people ready to allow a group of young enthusiasts on to their property
“The youth is the best educated environmentally that there’s historically,” explains the group's leader, 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 most as a result.”
Revitalization of the Property
Currently, the group is taking root across the UK – and the original site started it all, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and where we established our connections,” says another co-director, as she gives a overview of the 30-acre land. “This used to be divided plots,” she says, as we walk through overgrown meadows featuring shrubs, bordered by forest. “The main visual difference is that we’ve removed all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like a unified environment.” In the summer, they donned protective gear and removed significant quantities of harmful weeds, an aggressive flora that can harm the flesh. “We’ve planted many of bush lines,” says she. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a brief period. We’ve eliminated a large part of animal feeding and noticed what’s come up.”
Bushes and hedgerows are a perfect songbird home, she comments, but currently they’re managing some of the thorny plants to develop a more range of habitats and to connect different sections of the site. Young saplings will take much more time to take root, but saplings from the surrounding oaks are already growing in the meadows; the team have been setting up barriers to protect them from grazing deer.
Animals Reappears in Droves
In addition to the nightingales – animals is coming back in droves. This year they’ve observed serpents, legless lizards, flyers and invertebrates, notes Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (such as a doormat over a depression in the earth). “You discover creatures and things sheltering under there, but it’s likely a slightly cold for them now.” Organic beehives, built using carved parts of tree trunk and buzzing with insects, are attached to some of the woodland. The lack of grazing horses has allowed invertebrates room to prosper in the meadows. When they visited this summer, states Bennett, “I’d never seen so numerous lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Inception of the Initiative
The original Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and additional members – united as youth, studying or having an interest in ecology. In the recent past, the IPCC was forecasting that the safe limit of 1.5C of climate change was seeming impossible, Greta Thunberg was guiding the youth protests for eco-awareness, and campaigner a speaker was addressing youth feeling “eco-worry”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s book, Wilding, on how she and her husband changed the a nearby property from a failing agricultural business into a successful natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what could be the function for young people?” asks Molly. “So we made a online presence and called numerous of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders wanting to do something and you lack time?’”
Durant adds the narrative: “Our whole organisation was fundamentally founded on the idea that there were people who were willing to allow a bunch of young enthusiasts on to their estate without strict rules, to make fairly massive decisions that would change land value
