That manically melodic song of the songbird is a scarce occurrence in the UK these days, yet it's different at the Surrey site. Previously, a solitary bird could be noticed at this secluded place in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from several zones,” notes Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A team of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the location, yet the nightingales were so boisterous, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” remarks Layla Mapemba. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the nightingales the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his care before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by its very essence a slow endeavor, but at this site at this property, after just a short period, the changes are already apparent, and noticeable. The farm used to be a sanctuary for equines. Currently it’s a showpiece for the youth-led mission: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the world, and to connect the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to stop. Climate change advances, habitat loss eliminates wildlife homes, and yet another international meeting ends with a unsatisfactory end in Brazil – so who could blame youth for wishing to initiate change themselves?
The organisation was based on the idea that there were landowners ready to allow a bunch of young enthusiasts on to their land
“The youth is the most informed in terms of nature that there’s historically,” says the group's founder, one organizer. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have contributed the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a outcome.”
Transformation of the Property
Now, the group is expanding across the Britain – and the original site started it all, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and where we established our community,” explains a founding member, as she gives a walkthrough of the 30-acre property. “This used to be divided plots,” she states, as we walk through long grass dotted with low scrub, surrounded by established trees. “The main visual change is that we’ve eliminated all the barriers, a significant length of it, to give the sense like a single environment.” In the warmer months, they donned hazmat suits and eradicated masses of harmful weeds, an aggressive flora that can harm the skin. “We’ve planted numerous of hedgerows,” says Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve removed a lot of animal feeding and seen what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a ideal nightingale home, she comments, however now they’re trimming some of the wild growth to establish a more diversity of ecosystems and to connect two parts of the property. Young saplings will take a while to grow, but saplings from the adjacent oaks are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the group have been placing guards to safeguard them from animals.
Animals Reappears in Droves
There's more than the songbirds – fauna is returning in droves. Recently they’ve spotted serpents, legless lizards, nocturnal mammals and bugs, notes a team member, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (such as a cover over a indentation in the ground). “You find creatures and things hiding under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cold for them now.” Wild beehives, made from carved parts of timber and buzzing with pollinators, are attached to some of the plants. The lack of livestock has provided insects space to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they came to this summer, says Bennett, “I’d not once observed so numerous butterflies. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The initial Youngwilders – Noah, Durant, Molly and more individuals – formed as learners, focusing on or sharing an interest in ecology. In that year, the IPCC was indicating that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of climate change was appearing impossible, Greta Thunberg was guiding the youth protests for eco-awareness, and advocate another voice was addressing the generation experiencing “eco-worry”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s publication, on rewilding, on how the authors transformed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful agricultural business into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the Knepp story, but what was the part for youth?” questions Molly. “So we made a platform and rang up many of wildlife trusts and were like, ‘Do you ever get your property owners seeking to make changes and you lack time?’”
Jack explains the narrative: “Our whole organisation was basically founded on the idea that there were people who were willing to allow a collection of young enthusiasts on to their estate indiscriminately, to make fairly massive actions that would change land value
