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The beautifully intricate melody of the songbird is a uncommon occurrence in the UK nowadays, yet not at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a single nightingale could be heard at this remote place in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them singing all night, from several zones,” says one ecologist, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A band of volunteers were residing temporarily at the property, however the nightingales were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them net and ring one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist states: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his possession before. He was emotional.”

Habitat Revival Accelerates at This Location

Nature recovery is by nature a slow process, but at this site at this property, after only several seasons, the changes are already visible, and hearable. The land was once a sanctuary for horses. Now it’s a showpiece for the youth-led purpose: to hasten habitat revival, in one of the biodiversity-poor countries in the globe, and to engage youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often unable to halt. Rising temperatures advances, deforestation destroys ecosystems, and another climate conference draws to a disappointing end in the host country – so what person could blame the younger generation for wishing to act independently?

Our organisation was founded on the notion that there were landowners ready to allow a group of youthful idiots on to their estate

“The youth is the best educated ecologically that there’s ever been,” explains the group's leader, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have played the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a outcome.”

Transformation of the Property

Now, the group is expanding across the UK – and Maple Farm started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and the place we created our network,” says another co-director, as she provides a walkthrough of the 30-acre site. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we walk through overgrown meadows featuring low scrub, hemmed by established trees. “The key noticeable transformation is that we’ve removed all the barriers, a significant length of it, to give the sense like a unified landscape.” In the warmer months, they donned hazmat suits and removed large amounts of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve planted loads of bush lines,” explains Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of grazing pressure and observed what’s emerged.”

Bushes and shrub lines are a excellent songbird home, she explains, however currently they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to create a more range of habitats and to link up different sections of the land. New trees will take much more time to take root, but young trees from the surrounding woodland are already establishing themselves in the fields; the crew have been installing protectors to protect them from animals.

Nature Comes Back in Droves

In addition to the nightingales – wildlife is returning in droves. Lately they’ve spotted grass snakes, legless lizards, bats and bugs, explains another co-director, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (like a mat over a small hollow in the ground). “You find creatures and animals hiding under there, but it’s probably a bit chilly for them now.” Organic nests, built using hollowed-out parts of tree trunk and buzzing with insects, are attached to some of the trees. The absence of grazing horses has provided small creatures room to flourish in the overgrown areas. When they explored this season, comments he, “I’d never seen so countless insects. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”

Inception of the Project

The first founders – Noah, Durant, Easton and two others – came together as students, pursuing or sharing an concern in environmental science. In 2019, the IPCC was predicting that the target of one and a half degrees of warming was appearing unachievable, the activist was spearheading the youth protests for eco-awareness, and advocate Clover Hogan was talking about the generation experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s book, about nature recovery, on how she and her husband transformed the a Sussex location from a struggling dairy farm into a successful natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what could be the part for the next generation?” questions Easton. “So we developed a online presence and rang up many of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your property owners seeking to do something and you don’t have capacity?’”

Jack adds the story: “Our entire organisation was fundamentally founded on the idea that there were landowners who were ready to allow a collection of youthful idiots on to their estate indiscriminately, to make fairly massive actions that would change land value