🔗 Share this article

That richly complex melody of the songbird is a uncommon presence in Britain these days, yet not at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a lone nightingale could be noticed at this hidden place in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them singing all night, from multiple areas,” notes a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A group of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the property, however the birds were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An specialist from the local conservation group came to help them capture and tag one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson states: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his care before. He was crying.”

Ecological Restoration Accelerates at This Location

Nature recovery is by nature a slow process, but here at this property, after just a short period, the changes are already visible, and audible. The property was once a retirement home for animals. Currently it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ goal: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the world, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often ineffectual to halt. Climate change advances, deforestation eliminates wildlife homes, and another international meeting ends with a disappointing conclusion in the host country – so who could blame the younger generation for wanting to act independently?

Our initiative was based on the idea that there were individuals ready to permit a group of young idiots on to their estate

“The younger generation is the most knowledgeable in terms of nature that there’s historically,” says the Youngwilders’ co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have played the smallest part to their causing, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the worst as a consequence.”

Change of the Landscape

Now, the organisation is growing across the UK – and this location planted the seed, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and where we created our community,” explains another co-director, as she gives a tour of the expansive land. “This was previously multiple separate areas,” she says, as we move through overgrown meadows dotted with low scrub, surrounded by established trees. “The key visible change is that we’ve eliminated all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like one landscape.” In the warmer months, they used special clothing and eradicated significant quantities of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can burn the body. “We’ve planted numerous of bush lines,” says she. “But the primary focus is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a large part of animal feeding and seen what’s come up.”

Bushes and natural fences are a perfect nightingale habitat, she explains, although currently they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to establish a more range of environments and to link up separate areas of the property. New trees will take much more time to establish, but new growth from the nearby oaks are already growing in the open areas; the crew have been installing guards to protect them from wildlife.

Nature Reappears in Large Numbers

There's more than the songbirds – fauna is returning in abundance. Recently they’ve seen grass snakes, slowworms, flyers and bugs, notes Noah Bennett, as he uncovers one of their monitoring tools (such as a cover over a indentation in the ground). “You get creatures and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s possibly a slightly cold for them now.” Wild homes, made from empty pieces of timber and buzzing with wild bees, are strapped to some of the woodland. The removal of animals has provided invertebrates room to flourish in the overgrown areas. When they came to this season, says Bennett, “I’d not ever observed so countless lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were saying, ‘What is occurring?’”

Origins of the Initiative

The original founders – Noah, Jack, Easton and more individuals – united as students, pursuing or sharing an interest in nature. In 2019, the IPCC was predicting that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of climate change was appearing unachievable, a prominent figure was spearheading the youth protests for climate movement, and advocate a speaker was addressing young people suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s publication, on rewilding, on how they transformed the Knepp Estate from a failing dairy farm into a flourishing wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what was the part for the next generation?” says Easton. “So we created a platform and called many of conservation groups and were like, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners wanting to make changes and you don’t have time?’”

Durant continues the narrative: “Our entire project was essentially founded on the belief that there were landowners who were willing to permit a collection of young amateurs on to their property indiscriminately, to take significant actions that would impact land value