That richly complex song of the songbird is a uncommon sound in England today, yet not at the Surrey site. Previously, a single bird could be detected at this secluded location in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them singing all night, from several zones,” says one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A team of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the site, however the birds were so boisterous, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the songbirds the next morning, she states: “He’d never held a songbird in his hands before. He was teary.”
Rewilding Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Nature recovery is by definition a slow endeavor, but here at the farm, after only a short period, the outcomes are already apparent, and audible. The property previously served as a sanctuary for equines. Today it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ goal: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished countries in the globe, and to connect the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often denied access to, and a global warming issue they are often ineffectual to stop. Climate change advances, habitat loss eliminates ecosystems, and yet another climate conference comes to a unsatisfactory outcome in Brazil – so what person could criticize youth for wanting to initiate change themselves?
Our project was based on the notion that there were individuals ready to permit a group of youthful idiots on to their property
“The youth is the best educated environmentally that there’s ever been,” explains the group's leader, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the issues, and have contributed the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to suffer the worst as a outcome.”
Revitalization of the Property
Currently, the initiative is growing across the UK – and Maple Farm planted the seed, in all respects. “It’s our origin point, and the place we created our community,” says another co-director, as she gives a tour of the expansive site. “This once consisted of six different fields,” she comments, as we move through overgrown meadows filled with low scrub, hemmed by forest. “The primary visible difference is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like one landscape.” In the summer, they donned special clothing and cleared significant quantities of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can burn the body. “We’ve introduced loads of natural barriers,” explains the director. “But the primary focus is we’ve just given it space for a little bit. We’ve reduced a large part of livestock impact and seen what’s sprung up.”
Underbrush and natural fences are a excellent songbird environment, she comments, although currently they’re managing some of the thorny plants to create a more variety of habitats and to connect separate areas of the site. Young saplings will take a while to establish, but young trees from the adjacent woodland are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the group have been installing protectors to protect them from animals.
Wildlife Comes Back in Abundance
It’s not just the songbirds – wildlife is coming back in large numbers. Recently they’ve spotted serpents, slowworms, bats and insects, explains Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (similar to a cover over a depression in the ground). “You discover reptiles and animals sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a slightly cold for them now.” Natural nests, constructed from empty parts of tree trunk and active with wild bees, are strapped to some of the woodland. The absence of animals has allowed invertebrates space to prosper in the meadows. When they visited this summer, states Bennett, “I’d not ever observed so countless butterflies. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Origins of the Initiative
The initial founders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and two others – formed as students, studying or having an interest in nature. In 2019, the climate experts was predicting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of global heating was appearing impossible, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the demonstrations for climate movement, and advocate another voice was talking about young people feeling “eco-worry”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s book, Wilding, on how she and her husband changed the Knepp Estate from a struggling agricultural business into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the example, but what was the role for young people?” questions Molly. “So we created a website and called many of conservation groups and were like, ‘Do you sometimes get your property owners wishing to take action and you are short on resources?’”
Jack adds the story: “Our entire organisation was fundamentally premised on the idea that there were landowners who were prepared to permit a collection of youthful enthusiasts on to their property indiscriminately, to decide on major choices that would impact land value
