The manically melodic melody of the songbird is a scarce presence in the UK these days, but not at Maple Farm. Four years ago, a single bird could be heard at this hidden spot in rural Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from multiple areas,” says Meg Cookson, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A band of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the property, however the birds were so boisterous, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the local conservation group came to help them trap and mark one of the birds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never touched a songbird in his hands before. He was teary.”
Rewilding Accelerates at Maple Farm
Nature recovery is by definition a gradual process, but at this site at this property, after only several seasons, the outcomes are already evident, and noticeable. The farm used to be a retirement home for animals. Today it’s a showpiece for the youth-led goal: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished regions in the world, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often unable to prevent. Climate change persists, deforestation eliminates ecosystems, and yet another climate conference comes to a frustrating end in the host country – so who could fault youth for choosing to take matters into their own hands?
Our initiative was based on the idea that there were landowners willing to let a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their property
“The newer cohort is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s historically,” states the Youngwilders’ co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have contributed the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a consequence.”
Revitalization of the Property
Now, the organisation is expanding across the United Kingdom – and the original site planted the seed, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and the place we established our connections,” explains Molly Easton, as she offers a walkthrough of the 12-hectare site. “This was previously multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we move through tall vegetation dotted with bushes, bordered by forest. “The key visual change is that we’ve eliminated all the barriers, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like one landscape.” In the warmer months, they wore protective gear and cleared large amounts of invasive plants, an invasive species that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve introduced many of natural barriers,” says the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve reduced a significant amount of livestock impact and seen what’s emerged.”
Underbrush and natural fences are a excellent nightingale environment, she explains, although currently they’re managing some of the wild growth to develop a greater diversity of environments and to connect two parts of the site. New trees will take considerably longer to grow, but saplings from the adjacent trees are already growing in the fields; the group have been placing protectors to protect them from animals.
Animals Returns in Droves
There's more than the songbirds – wildlife is returning in droves. Lately they’ve seen grass snakes, creatures, flyers and insects, explains Noah Bennett, as he uncovers one of their survey equipment (similar to a mat over a small hollow in the ground). “You get creatures and things hiding under there, but it’s likely a slightly chilly for them now.” Wild nests, constructed from empty sections of wood and buzzing with pollinators, are strapped to some of the trees. The lack of animals has provided small creatures room to prosper in the overgrown areas. When they came to this summer, states he, “I’d not ever observed so numerous butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is happening?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The initial participants – Noah, Durant, Molly and additional members – came together as youth, pursuing or expressing an passion in ecology. In the recent past, the IPCC was predicting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of climate change was appearing unachievable, Greta Thunberg was guiding the school strikes for environmental action, and campaigner Clover Hogan was talking about young people suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s work, Wilding, on how the authors changed the a nearby property from a struggling dairy farm into a successful wildlife haven. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the function for young people?” asks Molly. “So we created a website and rang up many of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders wishing to take action and you don’t have resources?’”
Jack adds the story: “Our entire project was essentially based on the notion that there were people who were willing to let a group of young enthusiasts on to their property indiscriminately, to take fairly massive decisions that would change land value
