That richly complex melody of the songbird is a uncommon sound in England these days, however not at this rural location. Four years ago, a single bird could be heard at this remote spot in rural Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them calling all night, from multiple areas,” says a lead scientist, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A band of volunteers were staying overnight at the site, yet the nightingales were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the birds the next morning, she states: “He’d never held a songbird in his hands before. He was emotional.”
Rewilding Accelerates at This Location
Rewilding is by nature a gradual process, but at this site at this property, after just four years, the results are already visible, and hearable. The land was once a retirement home for animals. Now it’s a model for the youth-led goal: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the ecologically impoverished nations in the planet, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to halt. Rising temperatures persists, tree clearing eliminates natural habitats, and yet another international meeting comes to a disappointing conclusion in abroad – so what person could fault young people for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
Our initiative was premised on the notion that there were landowners prepared to permit a bunch of young idiots on to their land
“The newer cohort is the best educated environmentally that there’s ever been,” says the group's leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have played the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a outcome.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Today, the group is taking root across the United Kingdom – and this location was the beginning, in all respects. “It’s our origin point, and the place we built our community,” explains Molly Easton, as she gives a walkthrough of the 30-acre land. “This was previously divided plots,” she comments, as we move through overgrown meadows dotted with bushes, bordered by established trees. “The key visible difference is that we’ve removed all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like a single environment.” In the summer, they wore special clothing and removed large amounts of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can burn the skin. “We’ve introduced loads of bush lines,” explains Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve reduced a lot of animal feeding and noticed what’s sprung up.”
Low scrub and hedgerows are a perfect songbird environment, she comments, although today they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to create a greater range of ecosystems and to connect two parts of the property. New trees will take much more time to take root, but new growth from the adjacent trees are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the team have been placing barriers to shield them from animals.
Wildlife Returns in Large Numbers
In addition to the nightingales – wildlife is coming back in large numbers. Recently they’ve observed serpents, slowworms, flyers and insects, says another co-director, as he raises one of their reptile mats (such as a cover over a indentation in the soil). “You find snakes and animals sheltering under there, but it’s likely a somewhat chilly for them now.” Organic beehives, built using carved pieces of tree trunk and buzzing with pollinators, are attached to some of the plants. The lack of livestock has allowed insects room to flourish in the overgrown areas. When they visited this season, comments Bennett, “I’d not ever seen so numerous butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Inception of the Movement
The initial participants – Bennett, Jack, Easton and more individuals – united as youth, focusing on or sharing an concern in environmental science. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was indicating that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of global heating was seeming out of reach, the activist was leading the demonstrations for environmental action, and campaigner a speaker was talking about the generation experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the time of the author's publication, Wilding, on how the authors revitalized the Knepp Estate from a failing agricultural business into a flourishing wildlife haven. “We were super-inspired by the example, but what was the part for youth?” asks Molly. “So we created a website and rang up numerous of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners wishing to make changes and you lack capacity?’”
Durant explains the story: “Our entire initiative was essentially based on the notion that there were landowners who were willing to permit a collection of young enthusiasts on to their land freely, to make fairly massive actions that would change land value
