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The manically melodic song of the nightingale is a rare presence in the UK today, yet not at this rural location. Previously, a solitary nightingale could be noticed at this remote place in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them singing all night, from several zones,” explains Meg Cookson, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of volunteers were residing temporarily at the site, yet the birds were so boisterous, “we stayed awake all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so amazing.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the birds the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never held a nightingale in his hands before. He was teary.”

Ecological Restoration Speeds Up at the Surrey Site

Rewilding is by its very essence a gradual process, but here at Maple Farm, after just four years, the results are already apparent, and hearable. The farm previously served as a sanctuary for animals. Currently it’s a example for the Youngwilders’ mission: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the planet, and to engage youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often denied access to, and a global warming issue they are often ineffectual to halt. Global heating continues, tree clearing eliminates wildlife homes, and one more climate conference comes to a frustrating end in abroad – so who could criticize the younger generation for wishing to initiate change themselves?

Our organisation was based on the notion that there were landowners willing to let a bunch of youthful idiots on to their land

“The younger generation is the most informed environmentally that there’s previously,” explains the group's co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the deeply concerned in the problems, and have contributed the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a result.”

Transformation of the Landscape

Now, the initiative is taking root across the Britain – and the original site planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and where we built our community,” explains Molly Easton, as she gives a tour of the 12-hectare property. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she states, as we walk through tall vegetation filled with shrubs, bordered by mature woodland. “The main visible change is that we’ve removed all the fencing, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like a single area.” In the warmer months, they used special clothing and removed large amounts of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can burn the flesh. “We’ve planted loads of bush lines,” explains the director. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a large part of livestock impact and seen what’s sprung up.”

Low scrub and hedgerows are a perfect songbird home, she comments, but now they’re managing some of the wild growth to establish a more variety of environments and to join two parts of the property. Fresh plantings will take much more time to grow, but young trees from the surrounding trees are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the team have been installing barriers to shield them from grazing deer.

Nature Returns in Droves

There's more than the songbirds – fauna is reappearing in large numbers. Lately they’ve spotted serpents, creatures, flyers and bugs, says another co-director, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (similar to a doormat over a small hollow in the earth). “You get snakes and things sheltering under there, but it’s probably a slightly cold for them now.” Organic homes, built using hollowed-out parts of wood and active with pollinators, are fixed to some of the plants. The lack of animals has provided small creatures opportunity to flourish in the overgrown areas. When they explored this time, says Bennett, “I’d not ever encountered so countless insects. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”

Inception of the Initiative

The original founders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and additional members – came together as students, studying or expressing an interest in nature. In the recent past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of warming was appearing out of reach, a prominent figure was spearheading the youth protests for environmental action, and campaigner a speaker was talking about youth suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s publication, about nature recovery, on how they transformed the a nearby property from a struggling agricultural business into a successful ecosystem. “We were highly motivated by the Knepp story, but what could be the role for youth?” questions Molly. “So we developed a platform and called numerous of wildlife trusts and were like, ‘Do you ever get your landowners wishing to take action and you lack time?’”

Jack adds the narrative: “Our entire initiative was basically founded on the belief that there were individuals who were prepared to let a group of young idiots on to their estate freely, to decide on significant choices that would affect land value