That richly complex song of the songbird is a rare presence in Britain today, but it's different at Maple Farm. Back in 2020, a solitary bird could be heard at this secluded spot in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them calling all night, from several zones,” says Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A group of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the location, yet the nightingales were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An professional from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never touched a songbird in his possession before. He was emotional.”
Habitat Revival Progresses at Maple Farm
Rewilding is by its very essence a slow process, but in this place at this property, after merely four years, the results are already visible, and noticeable. The property previously served as a sanctuary for horses. Today it’s a showpiece for the youth-led purpose: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted nations in the planet, and to connect youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to halt. Rising temperatures continues, tree clearing damages ecosystems, and one more international meeting draws to a disappointing conclusion in Brazil – so who could fault young people for wishing to take matters into their own hands?
Our project was premised on the notion that there were individuals prepared to allow a group of youthful idiots on to their estate
“The newer cohort is the most knowledgeable ecologically that there’s historically,” explains the group's founder, a key figure. They are also “the highly invested in the challenges, and have contributed the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a outcome.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Currently, the initiative is taking root across the United Kingdom – and this location planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and where we built our connections,” explains another co-director, as she offers a walkthrough of the expansive property. “This was previously six different fields,” she says, as we walk through tall vegetation filled with shrubs, bordered by forest. “The key noticeable change is that we’ve removed all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like one area.” In the warmer months, they donned protective gear and removed large amounts of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can harm the body. “We’ve introduced numerous of hedgerows,” says Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve reduced a lot of livestock impact and observed what’s sprung up.”
Underbrush and natural fences are a perfect nightingale habitat, she explains, but now they’re trimming some of the wild growth to create a more variety of environments and to connect two parts of the land. Young saplings will take considerably longer to take root, but saplings from the nearby trees are already growing in the meadows; the crew have been placing protectors to safeguard them from animals.
Wildlife Reappears in Droves
In addition to the songbirds – fauna is coming back in droves. Lately they’ve seen reptiles, legless lizards, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, explains a team member, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (like a doormat over a small hollow in the soil). “You discover snakes and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s probably a bit chilly for them now.” Organic homes, built using hollowed-out pieces of wood and active with pollinators, are strapped to some of the woodland. The lack of animals has given invertebrates room to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they visited this time, comments Bennett, “I’d never observed so countless insects. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Inception of the Project
The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and two others – came together as youth, studying or sharing an interest in nature. In that year, the IPCC was predicting that the target of one and a half degrees of warming was seeming unachievable, a prominent figure was leading the demonstrations for environmental action, and activist Clover Hogan was talking about youth experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the period of a writer's book, Wilding, on how they changed the a Sussex location from a unsuccessful agricultural business into a thriving natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what could be the role for young people?” asks Molly. “So we developed a platform and contacted loads of environmental organizations and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners wanting to do something and you don’t have resources?’”
Durant adds the narrative: “Our entire initiative was fundamentally founded on the idea that there were landowners who were ready to allow a group of young enthusiasts on to their estate without strict rules, to make significant choices that would change land value
