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That richly complex song of the nightingale is a rare presence in Britain these days, however it's different at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a single bird could be heard at this remote location in rural Surrey; this summer, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from multiple areas,” says a lead scientist, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A team of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the property, however the birds were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” remarks 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 trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, she states: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his possession before. He was emotional.”

Rewilding Speeds Up at Maple Farm

Ecological restoration is by definition a lengthy process, but here at the farm, after just several seasons, the changes are already visible, and hearable. The land previously served as a retirement home for equines. Today it’s a example for the youth-led mission: to hasten ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the planet, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to halt. Rising temperatures advances, habitat loss damages wildlife homes, and yet another Cop summit draws to a disappointing outcome in Brazil – so what person could criticize young people for wanting to initiate change themselves?

Our initiative was based on the belief that there were individuals prepared to permit a collection of youthful enthusiasts on to their land

“The newer cohort is the most informed in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” explains the Youngwilders’ founder, a key figure. They are also “the highly invested in the challenges, and have contributed the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a consequence.”

Transformation of the Site

Now, the initiative is expanding across the United Kingdom – and Maple Farm started it all, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and where we established our connections,” explains another co-director, as she gives a walkthrough of the 12-hectare site. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we walk through overgrown meadows filled with shrubs, bordered by mature woodland. “The main noticeable difference is that we’ve eliminated all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like one landscape.” In the recent season, they used protective gear and eradicated large amounts of harmful weeds, an non-native plant that can burn the body. “We’ve planted loads of hedgerows,” says she. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve removed a large part of animal feeding and seen what’s emerged.”

Bushes and shrub lines are a perfect nightingale environment, she comments, but currently they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to create a more variety of environments and to link up two parts of the site. Fresh plantings will take a while to grow, but young trees from the nearby oaks are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the team have been setting up barriers to protect them from grazing deer.

Wildlife Comes Back in Abundance

There's more than the songbirds – wildlife is coming back in droves. Lately they’ve spotted serpents, creatures, flyers and insects, explains Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (such as a doormat over a depression in the earth). “You get creatures and things residing under there, but it’s likely a bit cool for them now.” Organic nests, constructed from carved parts of wood and buzzing with pollinators, are attached to some of the woodland. The lack of grazing horses has allowed invertebrates space to flourish in the meadows. When they came to this summer, states the director, “I’d not ever seen so numerous insects. There were just masses of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”

Origins of the Project

The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and more individuals – came together as students, pursuing or expressing an passion in nature. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of global heating was appearing impossible, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the school strikes for eco-awareness, and campaigner another voice was addressing young people experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the era of a writer's book, Wilding, on how the authors transformed the a Sussex location from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what was the role for youth?” questions Molly. “So we developed a website and called many of conservation groups and were like, ‘Do you sometimes get your property owners wishing to make changes and you lack capacity?’”

Jack continues the narrative: “Our entire organisation was essentially premised on the belief that there were people who were prepared to permit a group of young amateurs on to their estate without strict rules, to decide on major choices that would impact land value