The beautifully intricate call of the songbird is a uncommon occurrence in England nowadays, yet it's different at Maple Farm. Back in 2020, a lone nightingale could be detected at this hidden place in rural Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from several zones,” notes Meg Cookson, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A team of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the site, yet the nightingales were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his possession before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Accelerates at Maple Farm
Nature recovery is by definition a lengthy process, but in this place at Maple Farm, after only several seasons, the changes are already apparent, and noticeable. The land previously served as a haven for horses. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the world, and to engage young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often excluded from, and a global warming issue they are often ineffectual to prevent. Global heating advances, tree clearing eliminates ecosystems, and another climate conference comes to a disappointing end in Brazil – so who could fault youth for wanting to act independently?
The organisation was based on the belief that there were people ready to let a bunch of youthful enthusiasts on to their land
“The youth is the best educated environmentally that there’s ever been,” explains the group's founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the deeply concerned in the problems, and have added the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a result.”
Change of the Property
Today, the initiative is taking root across the UK – and the original site was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and where we established our network,” says a founding member, as she gives a walkthrough of the 30-acre site. “This once consisted of divided plots,” she comments, as we move through long grass dotted with shrubs, bordered by established trees. “The primary visible transformation is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to give the sense like a single landscape.” In the warmer months, they wore protective gear and cleared masses of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can burn the skin. “We’ve introduced many of bush lines,” says Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a large part of grazing pressure and seen what’s emerged.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a perfect nightingale environment, she explains, but now they’re trimming some of the brambles to develop a more range of environments and to connect two parts of the site. Young saplings will take much more time to grow, but new growth from the surrounding woodland are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the team have been setting up guards to shield them from grazing deer.
Animals Reappears in Droves
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is reappearing in large numbers. This year they’ve spotted serpents, legless lizards, nocturnal mammals and bugs, notes another co-director, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (similar to a doormat over a small hollow in the earth). “You find reptiles and animals hiding under there, but it’s possibly a bit cold for them now.” Natural homes, built using empty sections of tree trunk and buzzing with insects, are attached to some of the trees. The absence of animals has allowed small creatures room to thrive in the long grass. When they came to this time, says he, “I’d never observed so numerous butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were saying, ‘What is occurring?’”
Origins of the Initiative
The original participants – Bennett, Jack, Easton and more individuals – came together as students, focusing on or expressing an passion in ecology. In that year, the IPCC was indicating that the safe limit of 1.5C of climate change was appearing unachievable, Greta Thunberg was leading the school strikes for climate movement, and activist Clover Hogan was addressing the generation suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the time of the author's book, Wilding, on how the authors transformed the Knepp Estate from a failing farm into a thriving wildlife haven. “We were highly motivated by the Knepp story, but what was the role for the next generation?” asks Easton. “So we developed a online presence and contacted many of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your property owners wanting to do something and you are short on capacity?’”
Jack explains the account: “Our whole project was basically premised on the idea that there were landowners who were prepared to allow a group of young enthusiasts on to their land freely, to make major decisions that would change land value
