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That richly complex song of the nightingale is a uncommon occurrence in the UK nowadays, but it's different at the Surrey site. Previously, a single nightingale could be detected at this hidden place in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were hearing them calling all night, from multiple areas,” notes Meg Cookson, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A team of volunteers were residing temporarily at the location, but the nightingales were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” says a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so incredible.” An professional from the regional nature organization came to help them trap and mark one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his care before. He was crying.”

Habitat Revival Speeds Up at This Location

Ecological restoration is by nature a slow process, but at this site at Maple Farm, after merely a short period, the outcomes are already apparent, and audible. The land previously served as a haven for horses. Today it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ goal: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the globe, and to link the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often denied access to, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to stop. Rising temperatures persists, tree clearing destroys natural habitats, and one more international meeting comes to a disappointing conclusion in abroad – so who could fault the younger generation for wanting to take matters into their own hands?

The organisation was premised on the idea that there were landowners willing to let a group of young enthusiasts on to their estate

“The newer cohort is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” states the Youngwilders’ co-director, one organizer. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have contributed the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a result.”

Change of the Property

Now, the initiative is growing across the Britain – and this location started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and the place we established our community,” notes a founding member, as she gives a walkthrough of the expansive property. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she states, as we move through tall vegetation dotted with bushes, hemmed by forest. “The key noticeable difference is that we’ve eliminated all the barriers, a significant length of it, to give the sense like a single area.” In the summer, they used protective gear and cleared large amounts of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can burn the skin. “We’ve planted numerous of bush lines,” notes she. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve removed a large part of grazing pressure and observed what’s emerged.”

Underbrush and shrub lines are a ideal songbird environment, she explains, although currently they’re managing some of the brambles to develop a greater range of habitats and to link up two parts of the site. Young saplings will take a while to establish, but young trees from the adjacent woodland are already growing in the fields; the team have been placing protectors to shield them from grazing deer.

Nature Reappears in Large Numbers

In addition to the songbirds – wildlife is reappearing in droves. Lately they’ve spotted grass snakes, creatures, bats and bugs, notes Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their reptile mats (similar to a doormat over a depression in the earth). “You get snakes and animals hiding under there, but it’s probably a slightly cool for them now.” Organic beehives, constructed from hollowed-out parts of wood and active with insects, are attached to some of the plants. The removal of grazing horses has provided insects space to prosper in the long grass. When they visited this summer, says Bennett, “I’d not ever observed so many insects. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”

Beginnings of the Project

The initial founders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and more individuals – united as students, pursuing or sharing an passion in environmental science. In that year, the climate experts was indicating that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of global heating was seeming unachievable, a prominent figure was leading the school strikes for environmental action, and advocate a speaker was talking about young people feeling “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of the author's book, about nature recovery, on how the authors transformed the a Sussex location from a struggling agricultural business into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what could be the role for the next generation?” asks Easton. “So we created a website and contacted loads of environmental organizations and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your landowners wanting to do something and you don’t have capacity?’”

Jack explains the story: “Our entire project was fundamentally premised on the belief that there were people who were willing to let a group of youthful amateurs on to their land freely, to decide on significant choices that would impact land value