The richly complex melody of the nightingale is a rare sound in Britain nowadays, yet not at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a solitary nightingale could be heard at this hidden location in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from several zones,” explains Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A team of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the location, yet the nightingales were so boisterous, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so amazing.” An expert from the local conservation group came to help them trap and mark one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never handled a songbird in his hands before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Speeds Up at This Location
Nature recovery is by its very essence a lengthy process, but here at this property, after only a short period, the results are already apparent, and hearable. The land used to be a sanctuary for animals. Today it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor countries in the planet, and to link the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to stop. Global heating persists, habitat loss eliminates ecosystems, and yet another climate conference ends with a disappointing outcome in abroad – so who could blame youth for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
Our project was founded on the notion that there were people prepared to allow a bunch of youthful amateurs on to their property
“The younger generation is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s historically,” explains the group's founder, one organizer. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have played the smallest part to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected most as a result.”
Change of the Site
Now, the organisation is expanding across the Britain – and the original site was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we established our community,” explains a founding member, as she offers a walkthrough of the 30-acre land. “This was previously multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we move through tall vegetation featuring low scrub, surrounded by established trees. “The key visible change is that we’ve eliminated all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like a single landscape.” In the recent season, they used protective gear and cleared masses of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can harm the skin. “We’ve introduced loads of natural barriers,” explains she. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve reduced a significant amount of grazing pressure and seen what’s come up.”
Bushes and hedgerows are a perfect songbird environment, she explains, although today they’re managing some of the wild growth to develop a more range of ecosystems and to connect separate areas of the site. Fresh plantings will take a while to take root, but young trees from the nearby woodland are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the group have been installing protectors to protect them from wildlife.
Wildlife Comes Back in Large Numbers
In addition to the nightingales – wildlife is returning in droves. Lately they’ve observed serpents, legless lizards, bats and bugs, notes Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (like a cover over a small hollow in the soil). “You discover snakes and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a bit cool for them now.” Natural nests, constructed from empty sections of wood and buzzing with insects, are strapped to some of the woodland. The lack of animals has provided small creatures opportunity to thrive in the meadows. When they came to this time, comments he, “I’d not ever encountered so many insects. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”
Inception of the Movement
The initial Youngwilders – Noah, Jack, Molly and additional members – came together as learners, focusing on or having an interest in environmental science. In 2019, the IPCC was forecasting that the target of 1.5C of warming was seeming unachievable, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the demonstrations for eco-awareness, and campaigner a speaker was addressing the generation suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s book, Wilding, on how she and her husband changed the a Sussex location from a struggling dairy farm into a flourishing wildlife haven. “We were super-inspired by the example, but what was the part for youth?” asks Molly. “So we made a platform and rang up loads of wildlife trusts and were like, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners seeking to do something and you are short on capacity?’”
Durant continues the story: “Our complete organisation was basically founded on the belief that there were individuals who were willing to let a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their land freely, to decide on significant choices that would change land value