The manically melodic melody of the songbird is a scarce presence in the UK today, but not at this rural location. Four years ago, a lone bird could be noticed at this secluded spot in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from five different territories,” says a lead scientist, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of volunteers were residing temporarily at the location, however the birds were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so incredible.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson states: “He’d never held a nightingale in his care before. He was crying.”
Ecological Restoration Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by nature a gradual process, but here at this property, after only four years, the changes are already visible, and hearable. The land was once a sanctuary for horses. Now it’s a example for the Youngwilders’ goal: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the world, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to halt. Rising temperatures persists, deforestation destroys ecosystems, and another climate conference draws to a frustrating outcome in abroad – so what person could fault the younger generation for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
Our organisation was premised on the idea that there were landowners willing to permit a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their property
“The youth is the most knowledgeable ecologically that there’s ever been,” explains the Youngwilders’ founder, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have played the smallest part to their creation, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a result.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Today, the initiative is growing across the Britain – and this location started it all, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and where we built our connections,” says another co-director, as she provides a tour of the 12-hectare property. “This was previously six different fields,” she states, as we move through long grass filled with bushes, bordered by forest. “The main noticeable difference is that we’ve eliminated all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like a single area.” In the summer, they used hazmat suits and removed significant quantities of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can burn the body. “We’ve planted many of natural barriers,” says the director. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve reduced a significant amount of livestock impact and noticed what’s emerged.”
Underbrush and natural fences are a perfect nightingale home, she comments, however currently they’re managing some of the thorny plants to establish a more variety of environments and to link up different sections of the site. Young saplings will take much more time to grow, but young trees from the nearby trees are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the crew have been placing guards to protect them from wildlife.
Animals Comes Back in Large Numbers
It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is reappearing in abundance. Recently they’ve observed serpents, creatures, bats and insects, notes Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (similar to a mat over a small hollow in the soil). “You find reptiles and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s likely a slightly cold for them now.” Natural homes, constructed from empty sections of timber and buzzing with insects, are attached to some of the plants. The removal of grazing horses has given invertebrates room to thrive in the meadows. When they came to this season, comments he, “I’d not once seen so many lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is occurring?’”
Beginnings of the Movement
The original founders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and more individuals – came together as youth, focusing on or expressing an passion in environmental science. In 2019, the climate experts was predicting that the safe limit of 1.5C of global heating was looking impossible, the activist was leading the youth protests for eco-awareness, and advocate Clover Hogan was discussing young people feeling “eco-worry”. It was also the time of the author's work, Wilding, on how she and her husband changed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what could be the function for youth?” asks Easton. “So we developed a platform and contacted many of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders wishing to do something and you don’t have capacity?’”
Durant continues the story: “Our whole organisation was essentially founded on the belief that there were individuals who were prepared to permit a group of youthful idiots on to their property freely, to take major choices that would impact land value
