That beautifully intricate song of the songbird is a rare presence in Britain nowadays, yet it's different at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a single nightingale could be noticed at this hidden place in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them singing all night, from several zones,” notes one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A band of participants were residing temporarily at the location, however the birds were so boisterous, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so incredible.” An specialist from the regional nature organization came to help them trap and mark one of the birds the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never touched a songbird in his care before. He was emotional.”
Habitat Revival Speeds Up at This Location
Rewilding is by nature a lengthy process, but at this site at this property, after just several seasons, the results are already apparent, and audible. The property previously served as a haven for equines. Currently it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ mission: to speed up ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted nations in the planet, and to link youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often unable to prevent. Global heating continues, tree clearing eliminates ecosystems, and yet another climate conference ends with a frustrating end in the host country – so who could blame youth for choosing to act independently?
The project was founded on the idea that there were individuals ready to allow a bunch of young amateurs on to their property
“The youth is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” says the group's leader, one organizer. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have played the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer the greatest as a result.”
Revitalization of the Landscape
Today, the group is growing across the United Kingdom – and this location planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and the place we established our network,” explains a founding member, as she provides a overview of the 30-acre property. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we stroll through tall vegetation dotted with low scrub, hemmed by established trees. “The key visible difference is that we’ve removed all the barriers, a significant length of it, to make it feel like a unified environment.” In the warmer months, they used hazmat suits and eradicated significant quantities of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can burn the body. “We’ve introduced numerous of hedgerows,” says the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of grazing pressure and observed what’s sprung up.”
Low scrub and hedgerows are a perfect songbird home, she comments, but now they’re trimming some of the brambles to create a more variety of ecosystems and to link up separate areas of the land. Fresh plantings will take much more time to grow, but new growth from the adjacent trees are already growing in the open areas; the crew have been installing guards to protect them from animals.
Nature Returns in Droves
There's more than the songbirds – wildlife is reappearing in large numbers. Recently they’ve spotted reptiles, legless lizards, bats and insects, explains Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (such as a doormat over a indentation in the earth). “You discover reptiles and things sheltering under there, but it’s probably a slightly cool for them now.” Organic nests, built using empty parts of wood and active with pollinators, are attached to some of the woodland. The absence of grazing horses has provided small creatures opportunity to flourish in the meadows. When they explored this summer, says Bennett, “I’d never encountered so numerous lepidoptera. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The initial participants – Bennett, Durant, Easton and two others – came together as youth, pursuing or expressing an concern in nature. In the recent past, the IPCC was indicating that the safe limit of 1.5C of warming was appearing impossible, a prominent figure was guiding the youth protests for eco-awareness, and advocate Clover Hogan was discussing youth suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the era of the author's book, Wilding, on how they changed the a Sussex location from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a flourishing wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what was the part for youth?” questions Molly. “So we created a website and contacted many of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your landowners seeking to take action and you don’t have resources?’”
Durant explains the narrative: “Our entire initiative was essentially based on the idea that there were people who were ready to permit a collection of youthful idiots on to their land indiscriminately, to take significant actions that would impact land value
