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That manically melodic call of the songbird is a uncommon occurrence in England nowadays, but it's different at this rural location. Four years ago, a lone bird could be detected at this secluded location in the countryside of Surrey; this summer, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them calling all night, from five different territories,” notes a lead scientist, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A group of participants were camping out at the location, yet the birds were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted 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 nightingales the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was teary.”

Rewilding Accelerates at the Surrey Site

Nature recovery is by definition a slow process, but in this place at Maple Farm, after merely a short period, the changes are already evident, and hearable. The farm previously served as a haven for equines. Currently it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ mission: to hasten habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and to link the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a environmental emergency they are often ineffectual to prevent. Rising temperatures persists, habitat loss destroys ecosystems, and one more Cop summit draws to a frustrating conclusion in the host country – so what person could criticize youth for wanting to take matters into their own hands?

Our initiative was founded on the notion that there were people willing to permit a collection of young idiots on to their estate

“The youth is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” says the Youngwilders’ leader, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have played the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a result.”

Change of the Site

Currently, the group is expanding across the United Kingdom – and Maple Farm started it all, in all respects. “It’s where we started, and where we built our connections,” says Molly Easton, as she gives a walkthrough of the 30-acre site. “This used to be six different fields,” she says, as we move through overgrown meadows filled with shrubs, hemmed by mature woodland. “The main visible change is that we’ve removed all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like a single area.” In the recent season, they wore protective gear and cleared significant quantities of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can irritate the skin. “We’ve introduced many of bush lines,” notes the director. “But the key action is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve reduced a large part of livestock impact and observed what’s sprung up.”

Low scrub and hedgerows are a excellent nightingale environment, she comments, although currently they’re trimming some of the wild growth to establish a greater diversity of environments and to connect two parts of the site. Fresh plantings will take a while to take root, but young trees from the surrounding woodland are already growing in the fields; the crew have been installing guards to protect them from animals.

Wildlife Returns in Abundance

There's more than the nightingales – animals is returning in abundance. This year they’ve seen grass snakes, slowworms, flyers and insects, notes Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their survey equipment (like a doormat over a small hollow in the earth). “You get creatures and wildlife residing under there, but it’s probably a somewhat cold for them now.” Organic beehives, built using empty pieces of timber and buzzing with wild bees, are strapped to some of the woodland. The lack of livestock has provided small creatures room to prosper in the long grass. When they visited this time, comments he, “I’d never encountered so countless butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”

Origins of the Project

The first founders – Bennett, Durant, Molly and more individuals – united as students, focusing on or sharing an concern in nature. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forecasting that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of global heating was looking impossible, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the demonstrations for environmental action, and campaigner Clover Hogan was talking about the generation experiencing “eco-worry”. It was also the time of a writer's book, Wilding, on how the authors changed the a nearby property from a failing dairy farm into a thriving ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what was the part for the next generation?” questions Molly. “So we developed a website and rang up loads of conservation groups and were asking, ‘Do you sometimes get your property owners wanting to take action and you are short on capacity?’”

Jack continues the narrative: “Our entire organisation was basically based on the belief that there were individuals who were prepared to permit a group of young enthusiasts on to their estate indiscriminately, to decide on significant actions that would change land value