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The beautifully intricate call of the songbird is a scarce sound in England these days, however not at this rural location. Four years ago, a single bird could be detected at this remote location in rural Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them singing all night, from five different territories,” says Meg Cookson, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A group of volunteers were residing temporarily at the site, but the birds were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” says a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so amazing.” An specialist from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the birds the next morning, Cookson recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his hands before. He was emotional.”

Rewilding Accelerates at Maple Farm

Rewilding is by definition a slow endeavor, but here at the farm, after just a short period, the results are already apparent, and audible. The property used to be a haven for equines. Today it’s a model for the youth-led goal: to hasten ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the planet, and to engage youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a global warming issue they are often powerless to halt. Climate change continues, habitat loss eliminates natural habitats, and another international meeting ends with a frustrating conclusion in Brazil – so who could fault young people for wanting to initiate change themselves?

Our organisation was based on the notion that there were people willing to permit a collection of young enthusiasts on to their property

“The youth is the best educated ecologically that there’s ever been,” says the Youngwilders’ co-director, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have contributed the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a outcome.”

Change of the Site

Currently, the organisation is expanding across the Britain – and this location was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and the place we created our network,” explains another co-director, as she offers a tour of the 30-acre property. “This used to be six different fields,” she comments, as we move through long grass filled with low scrub, hemmed by mature woodland. “The primary visual change is that we’ve eliminated all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like one environment.” In the warmer months, they donned protective gear and cleared significant quantities of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can irritate the body. “We’ve established many of natural barriers,” explains she. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a brief period. We’ve reduced a significant amount of animal feeding and seen what’s sprung up.”

Low scrub and shrub lines are a excellent songbird home, she explains, although today they’re managing some of the thorny plants to establish a greater diversity of ecosystems and to connect separate areas of the property. Young saplings will take much more time to take root, but young trees from the surrounding oaks are already growing in the fields; the crew have been installing barriers to protect them from wildlife.

Wildlife Reappears in Droves

In addition to the nightingales – fauna is coming back in large numbers. Lately they’ve seen serpents, legless lizards, bats and invertebrates, explains a team member, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (such as a cover over a depression in the earth). “You find snakes and animals residing under there, but it’s probably a slightly chilly for them now.” Wild beehives, constructed from hollowed-out parts of timber and humming with wild bees, are strapped to some of the plants. The lack of grazing horses has provided small creatures opportunity to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they visited this summer, says he, “I’d not once observed so many butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”

Origins of the Project

The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and more individuals – formed as youth, focusing on or expressing an interest in ecology. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forecasting that the target of one and a half degrees of climate change was seeming out of reach, a prominent figure was spearheading the youth protests for environmental action, and activist another voice was addressing the generation suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the era of the author's book, about nature recovery, on how the authors revitalized the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful farm into a flourishing wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what was the part for the next generation?” says Molly. “So we made a platform and rang up loads of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your landowners seeking to do something and you lack capacity?’”

Durant adds the story: “Our entire organisation was fundamentally based on the notion that there were landowners who were prepared to permit a group of young idiots on to their land indiscriminately, to make major decisions that would change land value