That beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a scarce presence in Britain these days, yet it's different at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a single nightingale could be noticed at this hidden spot in rural Surrey; lately, they were all around. “We were listening to them calling all night, from multiple areas,” says a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the eco-activist organization. A group of volunteers were staying overnight at the site, however the nightingales were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted 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, she remembers: “He’d never held a songbird in his care before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Speeds Up at This Location
Rewilding is by nature a slow business, but at this site at this property, after only four years, the results are already apparent, and noticeable. The farm was once a haven for horses. Today it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to accelerate ecological restoration, in one of the biodiversity-poor countries in the world, and to connect the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a global warming issue they are often powerless to prevent. Global heating continues, deforestation damages wildlife homes, and one more international meeting ends with a disappointing conclusion in the host country – so who could criticize youth for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
Our project was premised on the idea that there were individuals ready to let a bunch of youthful idiots on to their property
“The youth is the most informed environmentally that there’s previously,” says the group's co-director, one organizer. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have added the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a consequence.”
Transformation of the Site
Currently, the group is taking root across the UK – and this location started it all, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and the place we created our community,” says Molly Easton, as she provides a walkthrough of the 30-acre site. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she says, as we walk through long grass featuring low scrub, hemmed by forest. “The primary visual transformation is that we’ve eliminated all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like a single area.” In the warmer months, they wore hazmat suits and removed masses of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can harm the flesh. “We’ve introduced loads of natural barriers,” notes the director. “But the primary focus is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve eliminated a lot of grazing pressure and seen what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and hedgerows are a excellent nightingale home, she explains, but now they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to create a more diversity of environments and to connect two parts of the land. Young saplings will take considerably longer to grow, but young trees from the nearby trees are already growing in the open areas; the team have been installing barriers to protect them from wildlife.
Wildlife Comes Back in Droves
In addition to the songbirds – wildlife is returning in droves. Lately they’ve spotted serpents, slowworms, bats and invertebrates, says another co-director, as he raises one of their reptile mats (such as a cover over a depression in the soil). “You get creatures and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s probably a slightly chilly for them now.” Natural beehives, constructed from carved sections of timber and active with wild bees, are attached to some of the plants. The lack of livestock has given invertebrates opportunity to thrive in the meadows. When they came to this season, comments the director, “I’d not once observed so countless butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The first participants – Noah, Jack, Easton and two others – united as students, focusing on or having an passion in ecology. In the recent past, the IPCC was forecasting that the safe limit of 1.5C of warming was seeming impossible, the activist was leading the demonstrations for eco-awareness, and advocate Clover Hogan was talking about young people suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the time of the author's book, on rewilding, on how she and her husband changed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful farm into a thriving ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what could be the role for the next generation?” questions Easton. “So we developed a online presence and called loads of environmental organizations and were like, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders seeking to do something and you don’t have time?’”
Durant continues the story: “Our entire organisation was essentially based on the belief that there were individuals who were prepared to allow a bunch of youthful enthusiasts on to their property freely, to make major actions that would impact land value
