The beautifully intricate melody of the songbird is a rare occurrence in the UK these days, yet it's different at this rural location. Back in 2020, a lone bird could be detected at this remote location in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them singing all night, from five different territories,” says a lead scientist, top biologist for the eco-activist organization. A team of Youngwilders were camping out at the site, yet the nightingales were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so amazing.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the nightingales the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his care before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by nature a slow process, but in this place at this property, after merely four years, the results are already evident, and noticeable. The farm previously served as a haven for animals. Now it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ goal: to accelerate ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the planet, and to connect the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to prevent. Global heating advances, habitat loss damages ecosystems, and another Cop summit draws to a disappointing conclusion in abroad – so what person could blame young people for wishing to act independently?
Our project was based on the idea that there were landowners willing to let a group of youthful amateurs on to their estate
“The youth is the most informed ecologically that there’s previously,” explains the Youngwilders’ leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have played the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a outcome.”
Change of the Site
Currently, the group is growing across the Britain – and the original site planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and where we established our community,” says Molly Easton, as she provides a tour of the 12-hectare land. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we walk through overgrown meadows featuring bushes, bordered by mature woodland. “The primary noticeable difference is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, a significant length of it, to give the sense like a single area.” In the warmer months, they used hazmat suits and cleared large amounts of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can burn the skin. “We’ve established loads of bush lines,” says she. “But the primary focus is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve reduced a lot of animal feeding and seen what’s emerged.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a perfect nightingale home, she says, however currently they’re managing some of the brambles to create a greater variety of environments and to link up separate areas of the property. New trees will take much more time to take root, but new growth from the nearby woodland are already growing in the fields; the group have been installing guards to safeguard them from animals.
Wildlife Reappears in Abundance
In addition to the nightingales – fauna is reappearing in large numbers. Recently they’ve spotted reptiles, legless lizards, flyers and bugs, notes a team member, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (like a cover over a depression in the soil). “You discover creatures and animals sheltering under there, but it’s likely a bit cold for them now.” Wild beehives, made from empty parts of timber and humming with insects, are strapped to some of the trees. The lack of grazing horses has provided small creatures opportunity to flourish in the meadows. When they explored this summer, states the director, “I’d not once seen so many butterflies. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Initiative
The original Youngwilders – Noah, Durant, Easton and additional members – came together as youth, pursuing or having an interest in environmental science. In 2019, the climate experts was forecasting that the safe limit of 1.5C of warming was looking unachievable, a prominent figure was guiding the school strikes for eco-awareness, and advocate another voice was talking about the generation experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s publication, on rewilding, on how she and her husband transformed the a Sussex location from a struggling agricultural business into a thriving wildlife haven. “We were super-inspired by the case study, but what could be the role for the next generation?” questions Molly. “So we made a website and called many of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your property owners wanting to take action and you lack capacity?’”
Durant continues the narrative: “Our complete initiative was essentially premised on the notion that there were landowners who were prepared to allow a bunch of young idiots on to their land without strict rules, to take fairly massive choices that would impact land value
