The beautifully intricate call of the nightingale is a rare sound in Britain today, but it's different at this rural location. Back in 2020, a single bird could be noticed at this secluded location in rural Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them calling all night, from five different territories,” notes a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the Youngwilders. A group of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the site, however the birds were so boisterous, “we stayed awake all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the songbirds the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his hands before. He was teary.”
Ecological Restoration Progresses at the Surrey Site
Ecological restoration is by definition a gradual endeavor, but here at the farm, after only several seasons, the results are already visible, and audible. The land used to be a retirement home for animals. Today it’s a model for the youth-led goal: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the ecologically impoverished countries in the planet, and to link the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to prevent. Rising temperatures advances, tree clearing damages wildlife homes, and another climate conference ends with a disappointing outcome in Brazil – so what person could blame the younger generation for wishing to initiate change themselves?
The project was based on the belief that there were people ready to let a collection of youthful amateurs on to their property
“The newer cohort is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s historically,” explains the Youngwilders’ founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have played the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences most as a consequence.”
Revitalization of the Site
Currently, the group is taking root across the UK – and this location started it all, in all respects. “It’s the initial project, and the place we built our network,” explains a founding member, as she gives a overview of the 30-acre site. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we stroll through overgrown meadows dotted with low scrub, bordered by mature woodland. “The main noticeable difference is that we’ve eliminated all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like one environment.” In the recent season, they donned hazmat suits and removed masses of giant hogweed, an aggressive flora that can irritate the skin. “We’ve established many of hedgerows,” explains the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a large part of animal feeding and observed what’s emerged.”
Bushes and hedgerows are a ideal nightingale habitat, she says, but today they’re cutting back some of the brambles to establish a increased range of habitats and to join two parts of the land. New trees will take considerably longer to establish, but young trees from the nearby trees are already establishing themselves in the fields; the crew have been installing barriers to protect them from wildlife.
Animals Reappears in Abundance
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is returning in droves. Recently they’ve observed serpents, slowworms, bats and bugs, says a team member, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (similar to a mat over a small hollow in the soil). “You find snakes and things hiding under there, but it’s likely a bit chilly for them now.” Organic homes, constructed from hollowed-out sections of wood and buzzing with wild bees, are fixed to some of the woodland. The lack of livestock has allowed insects room to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they explored this summer, says the director, “I’d never observed so numerous lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”
Inception of the Project
The initial founders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and two others – formed as students, studying or having an interest in nature. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forecasting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of warming was looking out of reach, the activist was guiding the school strikes for eco-awareness, and campaigner a speaker was talking about the generation feeling “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s book, about nature recovery, on how the authors revitalized the Knepp Estate from a failing agricultural business into a thriving ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what could be the part for youth?” asks Molly. “So we developed a website and contacted numerous of environmental organizations and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your landowners seeking to take action and you don’t have time?’”
Jack adds the narrative: “Our complete initiative was fundamentally founded on the notion that there were individuals who were ready to permit a group of youthful idiots on to their estate indiscriminately, to take major choices that would impact land value
