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The beautifully intricate call of the songbird is a scarce occurrence in England today, but it's different at this rural location. Four years ago, a solitary bird could be heard at this remote place in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them singing all night, from five different territories,” notes one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A group of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the property, however the birds were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, the ecologist states: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his possession before. He was emotional.”

Ecological Restoration Progresses at Maple Farm

Rewilding is by definition a gradual process, but here at Maple Farm, after merely four years, the changes are already apparent, and hearable. The farm was once a sanctuary for equines. Now it’s a model for the youth-led goal: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished regions in the planet, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often ineffectual to prevent. Climate change continues, tree clearing damages ecosystems, and one more Cop summit comes to a frustrating end in abroad – so who could fault young people for wanting to act independently?

The initiative was based on the notion that there were landowners ready to let a collection of youthful idiots on to their property

“The younger generation is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s previously,” explains the Youngwilders’ leader, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have played the smallest part to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer the greatest as a result.”

Change of the Landscape

Currently, the initiative is taking root across the Britain – and this location was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and the place we built our community,” explains a founding member, as she gives a tour of the 12-hectare property. “This once consisted of divided plots,” she comments, as we walk through tall vegetation filled with bushes, bordered by mature woodland. “The main visual transformation is that we’ve removed all the fencing, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like one landscape.” In the summer, they used special clothing and removed masses of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can burn the skin. “We’ve planted loads of bush lines,” says the director. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve removed a significant amount of animal feeding and seen what’s sprung up.”

Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal songbird environment, she comments, but today they’re managing some of the brambles to develop a increased diversity of habitats and to link up two parts of the site. Young saplings will take considerably longer to grow, but saplings from the adjacent woodland are already growing in the open areas; the crew have been installing barriers to shield them from grazing deer.

Nature Reappears in Droves

It’s not just the songbirds – wildlife is reappearing in droves. This year they’ve observed grass snakes, legless lizards, flyers and invertebrates, notes a team member, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (such as a mat over a depression in the soil). “You get reptiles and animals residing under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cold for them now.” Organic beehives, constructed from empty sections of wood and humming with pollinators, are strapped to some of the woodland. The lack of animals has allowed invertebrates space to thrive in the long grass. When they explored this time, states the director, “I’d not once observed so numerous lepidoptera. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is happening?’”

Beginnings of the Project

The initial founders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and more individuals – came together as youth, focusing on or having an passion in environmental science. In that year, the IPCC was predicting that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of global heating was seeming unachievable, a prominent figure was leading the demonstrations for climate movement, and activist Clover Hogan was addressing young people feeling “climate anxiety”. It was also the era of the author's book, Wilding, on how she and her husband transformed the Knepp Estate from a struggling farm into a successful wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what was the part for the next generation?” asks Molly. “So we created a website and called loads of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders seeking to make changes and you lack capacity?’”

Jack continues the story: “Our whole organisation was basically premised on the notion that there were individuals who were willing to allow a group of young amateurs on to their estate freely, to make major decisions that would change land value