The richly complex song of the songbird is a rare occurrence in England today, but not at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a single nightingale could be noticed at this hidden location in rural Surrey; this summer, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from multiple areas,” says Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the Youngwilders. A group of participants were camping out at the location, but the birds were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the regional nature organization came to help them net and ring one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his possession before. He was crying.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at This Location
Nature recovery is by definition a lengthy process, but in this place at this property, after just several seasons, the results are already evident, and hearable. The property previously served as a haven for horses. Now it’s a example for the Youngwilders’ mission: to speed up nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor nations in the world, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to stop. Global heating continues, deforestation eliminates ecosystems, and one more international meeting draws to a frustrating end in abroad – so what person could blame the younger generation for choosing to take matters into their own hands?
Our initiative was founded on the notion that there were landowners ready to permit a group of youthful amateurs on to their property
“The newer cohort is the most knowledgeable environmentally that there’s previously,” explains the group's leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have played the minimal role to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a result.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Currently, the group is expanding across the UK – and this location planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s where we started, and where we built our community,” notes Molly Easton, as she offers a tour of the 30-acre site. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she says, as we move through long grass featuring bushes, surrounded by mature woodland. “The main visible transformation is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like a single area.” In the recent season, they wore protective gear and removed large amounts of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can irritate the skin. “We’ve established many of bush lines,” says Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of animal feeding and observed what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a perfect nightingale home, she explains, however today they’re managing some of the brambles to develop a greater diversity of environments and to link up two parts of the property. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to take root, but new growth from the nearby woodland are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the crew have been installing barriers to shield them from wildlife.
Nature Returns in Droves
It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is coming back in large numbers. This year they’ve spotted reptiles, legless lizards, nocturnal mammals and bugs, explains Noah Bennett, as he uncovers one of their survey equipment (such as a mat over a depression in the soil). “You find snakes and things hiding under there, but it’s possibly a bit chilly for them now.” Wild nests, constructed from empty sections of wood and humming with pollinators, are strapped to some of the woodland. The absence of animals has provided small creatures room to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they visited this summer, comments the director, “I’d not ever encountered so numerous lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Origins of the Project
The original participants – Bennett, Durant, Easton and additional members – united as learners, pursuing or sharing an interest in environmental science. In the recent past, the climate experts was indicating that the safe limit of 1.5C of global heating was seeming out of reach, a prominent figure was guiding the school strikes for eco-awareness, and activist Clover Hogan was addressing youth suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of the author's publication, on rewilding, on how she and her husband revitalized the a nearby property from a failing dairy farm into a successful natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what could be the part for youth?” questions Molly. “So we made a online presence and contacted many of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders wanting to take action and you lack time?’”
Durant adds the story: “Our complete organisation was fundamentally founded on the notion that there were people who were willing to let a collection of young idiots on to their land freely, to decide on significant decisions that would impact land value
