The richly complex call of the songbird is a rare presence in England today, but it's different at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a lone nightingale could be noticed at this remote location in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were all around. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from several zones,” says one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A team of participants were camping out at the property, yet the birds were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so incredible.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was teary.”
Habitat Revival Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by its very essence a gradual business, but at this site at this property, after merely four years, the outcomes are already evident, and audible. The property was once a sanctuary for horses. Today it’s a showpiece for the youth-led mission: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the ecologically impoverished countries in the globe, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often ineffectual to halt. Climate change advances, tree clearing eliminates natural habitats, and yet another international meeting draws to a disappointing conclusion in the host country – so what person could criticize the younger generation for choosing to act independently?
Our initiative was founded on the belief that there were people prepared to let a group of youthful idiots on to their land
“The newer cohort is the most knowledgeable environmentally that there’s historically,” says the Youngwilders’ founder, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have contributed the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a consequence.”
Change of the Landscape
Now, the group is growing across the Britain – and the original site started it all, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and where we created our community,” notes Molly Easton, as she offers a walkthrough of the 12-hectare site. “This was previously divided plots,” she says, as we move through tall vegetation featuring shrubs, surrounded by forest. “The key visual change is that we’ve removed all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like one environment.” In the summer, they used hazmat suits and removed significant quantities of harmful weeds, an aggressive flora that can irritate the body. “We’ve established numerous of bush lines,” explains Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve reduced a lot of grazing pressure and seen what’s emerged.”
Bushes and natural fences are a perfect nightingale home, she comments, although now they’re managing some of the thorny plants to establish a greater variety of habitats and to link up two parts of the property. Fresh plantings will take a while to establish, but saplings from the surrounding trees are already taking root in the meadows; the group have been installing protectors to shield them from grazing deer.
Wildlife Comes Back in Droves
There's more than the songbirds – fauna is returning in droves. This year they’ve spotted grass snakes, creatures, bats and insects, explains Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (similar to a doormat over a depression in the ground). “You get creatures and wildlife residing under there, but it’s likely a slightly chilly for them now.” Natural homes, made from hollowed-out pieces of wood and humming with wild bees, are attached to some of the trees. The absence of animals has allowed small creatures space to flourish in the overgrown areas. When they explored this season, says Bennett, “I’d not ever observed so numerous insects. There were just clouds of them. We were saying, ‘What is occurring?’”
Origins of the Movement
The initial founders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and more individuals – came together as students, focusing on or having an concern in environmental science. In 2019, the climate experts was forecasting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of warming was seeming out of reach, a prominent figure was leading the demonstrations for climate movement, and activist another voice was addressing young people feeling “eco-worry”. It was also the time of a writer's book, Wilding, on how they changed the a nearby property from a unsuccessful farm into a flourishing ecosystem. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what could be the role for youth?” says Easton. “So we created a platform and contacted loads of environmental organizations and were like, ‘Do you ever get your landowners wanting to make changes and you lack time?’”
Durant adds the account: “Our complete organisation was essentially based on the belief that there were individuals who were ready to allow a collection of youthful idiots on to their land indiscriminately, to decide on major actions that would affect land value
