That beautifully intricate song of the songbird is a uncommon occurrence in England today, yet not at this rural location. Back in 2020, a single bird could be noticed at this secluded spot in rural Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them singing all night, from multiple areas,” says a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the Youngwilders. A band of participants were camping out at the location, however the birds were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” remarks an engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his care before. He was teary.”
Rewilding Progresses at This Location
Nature recovery is by its very essence a lengthy business, but here at this property, after just a short period, the outcomes are already apparent, and audible. The land previously served as a sanctuary for equines. Currently it’s a showpiece for the youth-led mission: to speed up nature recovery, in one of the ecologically impoverished nations in the world, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a environmental emergency they are often powerless to halt. Climate change continues, habitat loss destroys ecosystems, and another international meeting ends with a unsatisfactory outcome in the host country – so what person could blame young people for choosing to initiate change themselves?
Our organisation was based on the notion that there were landowners ready to let a group of young enthusiasts on to their land
“The newer cohort is the best educated environmentally that there’s ever been,” says the Youngwilders’ co-director, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have contributed the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected most as a result.”
Transformation of the Site
Currently, the organisation is growing across the Britain – and the original site started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and the place we established our connections,” explains another co-director, as she gives a tour of the expansive site. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she says, as we stroll through tall vegetation featuring shrubs, surrounded by forest. “The main visual change is that we’ve removed all the fencing, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like one environment.” In the summer, they wore protective gear and eradicated large amounts of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can burn the body. “We’ve planted loads of hedgerows,” explains she. “But the primary focus is we’ve just given it space for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of animal feeding and observed what’s emerged.”
Underbrush and hedgerows are a ideal nightingale habitat, she comments, although today they’re managing some of the brambles to create a increased diversity of environments and to join two parts of the property. New trees will take considerably longer to establish, but young trees from the nearby oaks are already establishing themselves in the fields; the team have been installing protectors to protect them from grazing deer.
Nature Returns in Large Numbers
It’s not just the nightingales – animals is returning in large numbers. Recently they’ve seen grass snakes, legless lizards, nocturnal mammals and insects, says Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (similar to a mat over a depression in the soil). “You find creatures and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s likely a slightly cold for them now.” Organic homes, made from carved sections of timber and humming with pollinators, are attached to some of the trees. The absence of animals has given small creatures room to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they came to this summer, states Bennett, “I’d not ever encountered so numerous lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is happening?’”
Origins of the Movement
The initial Youngwilders – Noah, Jack, Molly and more individuals – came together as students, pursuing or sharing an interest in ecology. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of global heating was looking impossible, the activist was spearheading the youth protests for climate movement, and activist a speaker was talking about young people suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s book, on rewilding, on how they revitalized the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a successful ecosystem. “We were super-inspired by the case study, but what was the role for youth?” says Easton. “So we created a platform and contacted numerous of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders seeking to do something and you lack resources?’”
Jack continues the story: “Our entire organisation was basically premised on the belief that there were people who were ready to allow a group of young amateurs on to their estate without strict rules, to decide on major decisions that would affect land value
