The richly complex song of the songbird is a rare presence in Britain nowadays, yet not at this rural location. Four years ago, a single nightingale could be noticed at this secluded place in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from several zones,” notes Meg Cookson, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A team of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the site, yet the birds were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so incredible.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never held a nightingale in his possession before. He was emotional.”
Habitat Revival Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Ecological restoration is by definition a lengthy process, but in this place at this property, after only several seasons, the results are already evident, and noticeable. The property was once a haven for horses. Now it’s a model for the youth-led goal: to speed up ecological restoration, in one of the ecologically impoverished nations in the world, and to connect the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often unable to prevent. Rising temperatures continues, deforestation destroys ecosystems, and yet another Cop summit comes to a disappointing conclusion in the host country – so what person could blame the younger generation for wanting to act independently?
The project was based on the idea that there were landowners prepared to let a bunch of young idiots on to their land
“The newer cohort is the best educated environmentally that there’s historically,” states the group's founder, one organizer. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have played the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a consequence.”
Revitalization of the Landscape
Today, the group is taking root across the United Kingdom – and the original site started it all, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and where we built our connections,” explains a founding member, as she gives a walkthrough of the 12-hectare property. “This once consisted of divided plots,” she comments, as we stroll through overgrown meadows dotted with shrubs, bordered by forest. “The main visual transformation is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like one environment.” In the summer, they wore hazmat suits and cleared masses of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can burn the flesh. “We’ve introduced loads of natural barriers,” explains Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just given it space for a little bit. We’ve reduced a significant amount of livestock impact and noticed what’s emerged.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a perfect songbird environment, she explains, but today they’re managing some of the wild growth to develop a more range of environments and to connect different sections of the site. Young saplings will take a while to establish, but new growth from the surrounding oaks are already taking root in the fields; the team have been installing barriers to shield them from wildlife.
Nature Comes Back in Abundance
There's more than the songbirds – wildlife is reappearing in abundance. Lately they’ve spotted reptiles, legless lizards, bats and invertebrates, notes another co-director, as he uncovers one of their monitoring tools (such as a cover over a small hollow in the soil). “You discover reptiles and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s probably a bit chilly for them now.” Natural nests, constructed from hollowed-out sections of timber and active with wild bees, are strapped to some of the plants. The absence of grazing horses has provided invertebrates space to prosper in the meadows. When they explored this season, says he, “I’d not once observed so numerous butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Origins of the Project
The initial Youngwilders – Noah, Jack, Easton and additional members – united as students, focusing on or having an concern in nature. In 2019, the climate experts was forecasting that the target of one and a half degrees of warming was seeming out of reach, Greta Thunberg was guiding the school strikes for climate movement, and advocate another voice was discussing the generation experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the period of a writer's work, Wilding, on how she and her husband revitalized the a nearby property from a struggling farm into a thriving natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the function for youth?” questions Molly. “So we developed a website and called many of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders seeking to do something and you don’t have resources?’”
Durant explains the story: “Our whole organisation was fundamentally premised on the idea that there were landowners who were prepared to let a bunch of young amateurs on to their land without strict rules, to decide on significant choices that would affect land value
