That richly complex call of the songbird is a rare occurrence in Britain nowadays, yet not at this rural location. Back in 2020, a single nightingale could be noticed at this remote location in rural Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them calling all night, from multiple areas,” notes a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A group of volunteers were camping out at the location, however the nightingales were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An expert from the local conservation group came to help them net and ring one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his possession before. He was crying.”
Rewilding Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by nature a slow process, but here at the farm, after only a short period, the changes are already apparent, and noticeable. The land was once a haven for horses. Today it’s a showpiece for the youth-led mission: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the globe, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often denied access to, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to halt. Climate change advances, deforestation eliminates wildlife homes, and one more international meeting ends with a unsatisfactory end in abroad – so who could blame youth for choosing to act independently?
The organisation was based on the notion that there were landowners willing to let a group of youthful amateurs on to their estate
“The younger generation is the most informed environmentally that there’s historically,” explains the group's co-director, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have added the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to experience consequences most as a outcome.”
Revitalization of the Landscape
Now, the group is expanding across the Britain – and this location planted the seed, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and where we established our connections,” says a founding member, as she offers a tour of the expansive site. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she says, as we walk through tall vegetation featuring low scrub, hemmed by mature woodland. “The primary visual transformation is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to create the impression like one area.” In the summer, they wore hazmat suits and eradicated significant quantities of giant hogweed, an aggressive flora that can harm the flesh. “We’ve established loads of hedgerows,” says Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve reduced a large part of animal feeding and observed what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and natural fences are a ideal nightingale home, she explains, but currently they’re trimming some of the thorny plants to establish a more variety of habitats and to link up two parts of the land. New trees will take much more time to take root, but young trees from the surrounding woodland are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the team have been setting up barriers to safeguard them from grazing deer.
Nature Returns in Large Numbers
In addition to the songbirds – animals is coming back in abundance. Recently they’ve observed grass snakes, legless lizards, flyers and bugs, notes Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (like a mat over a indentation in the earth). “You discover reptiles and wildlife residing under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cool for them now.” Wild beehives, made from hollowed-out parts of tree trunk and active with pollinators, are fixed to some of the trees. The absence of livestock has given invertebrates opportunity to thrive in the meadows. When they came to this summer, says the director, “I’d never observed so many lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were wondering, ‘What is occurring?’”
Beginnings of the Initiative
The original participants – Noah, Jack, Easton and additional members – formed as students, studying or expressing an concern in environmental science. In 2019, the IPCC was indicating that the safe limit of 1.5C of warming was appearing out of reach, Greta Thunberg was guiding the youth protests for eco-awareness, and advocate another voice was talking about young people suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the era of the author's work, Wilding, on how they revitalized the a Sussex location from a failing dairy farm into a thriving natural habitat. “We were super-inspired by the example, but what could be the part for youth?” asks Molly. “So we created a online presence and contacted many of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your landowners wanting to make changes and you are short on time?’”
Jack adds the story: “Our whole organisation was basically founded on the idea that there were people who were prepared to let a collection of young amateurs on to their property without strict rules, to make significant actions that would impact land value
