The beautifully intricate call of the nightingale is a rare presence in the UK nowadays, but not at this rural location. Previously, a solitary bird could be heard at this hidden place in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them singing all night, from five different territories,” says Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the Youngwilders. A band of participants were residing temporarily at the location, yet the nightingales were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” remarks Layla Mapemba. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the birds the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never touched a songbird in his care before. He was crying.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Ecological restoration is by nature a slow process, but in this place at this property, after merely four years, the changes are already apparent, and noticeable. The land was once a sanctuary for animals. Now it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished regions in the planet, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to stop. Rising temperatures advances, deforestation destroys ecosystems, and another Cop summit draws to a disappointing conclusion in the host country – so what person could criticize youth for choosing to take matters into their own hands?
The project was premised on the belief that there were individuals prepared to allow a collection of young amateurs on to their estate
“The younger generation is the most informed environmentally that there’s ever been,” states the Youngwilders’ founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have contributed the smallest part to their causing, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a consequence.”
Change of the Site
Currently, the group is growing across the UK – and this location planted the seed, in all respects. “It’s where we started, and the place we built our network,” notes a founding member, as she gives a walkthrough of the expansive property. “This used to be six different fields,” she says, as we walk through tall vegetation filled with low scrub, hemmed by forest. “The main noticeable transformation is that we’ve taken out all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like a unified landscape.” In the summer, they wore protective gear and cleared masses of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can burn the skin. “We’ve planted loads of bush lines,” says the director. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of grazing pressure and seen what’s emerged.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a perfect nightingale habitat, she comments, but currently they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to develop a more diversity of habitats and to connect separate areas of the property. New trees will take a while to establish, but new growth from the nearby trees are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the team have been installing protectors to safeguard them from grazing deer.
Wildlife Reappears in Droves
In addition to the songbirds – fauna is coming back in large numbers. This year they’ve observed reptiles, legless lizards, bats and insects, explains Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (similar to a cover over a depression in the earth). “You get snakes and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s likely a slightly cool for them now.” Natural nests, constructed from hollowed-out pieces of wood and active with wild bees, are attached to some of the plants. The lack of grazing horses has given invertebrates opportunity to thrive in the meadows. When they came to this season, says Bennett, “I’d not ever observed so countless lepidoptera. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Movement
The first participants – Bennett, Durant, Easton and more individuals – formed as students, focusing on or sharing an concern in environmental science. In that year, the IPCC was predicting that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of warming was appearing impossible, a prominent figure was spearheading the demonstrations for climate movement, and activist Clover Hogan was discussing the generation experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s publication, on rewilding, on how the authors revitalized the a nearby property from a unsuccessful farm into a flourishing wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what could be the role for young people?” asks Easton. “So we created a online presence and called many of environmental organizations and were like, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders seeking to take action and you lack resources?’”
Durant adds the account: “Our complete organisation was essentially founded on the idea that there were landowners who were prepared to let a collection of youthful amateurs on to their land freely, to make major actions that would affect land value
