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The beautifully intricate song of the nightingale is a rare occurrence in England today, yet not at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a lone nightingale could be noticed at this remote place in rural Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from five different territories,” explains a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the eco-activist organization. A band of volunteers were residing temporarily at the location, but the birds were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the regional nature organization came to help them net and ring one of the songbirds the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was crying.”

Ecological Restoration Progresses at the Surrey Site

Rewilding is by its very essence a slow process, but here at the farm, after merely four years, the changes are already visible, and noticeable. The land used to be a retirement home for equines. Now it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to speed up nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the planet, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often powerless to stop. Climate change persists, tree clearing eliminates ecosystems, and one more climate conference draws to a frustrating conclusion in the host country – so what person could fault young people for choosing to take matters into their own hands?

The organisation was founded on the belief that there were landowners willing to allow a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their estate

“The newer cohort is the most informed environmentally that there’s historically,” says the Youngwilders’ co-director, one organizer. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have played the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to experience consequences most as a consequence.”

Change of the Site

Today, the organisation is taking root across the Britain – and the original site was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and the place we established our network,” explains a founding member, as she provides a overview of the 30-acre property. “This once consisted of divided plots,” she says, as we walk through long grass dotted with low scrub, bordered by mature woodland. “The key visible change is that we’ve removed all the barriers, a significant length of it, to create the impression like one landscape.” In the summer, they used special clothing and removed significant quantities of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can irritate the skin. “We’ve introduced many of bush lines,” explains Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a short time. We’ve reduced a significant amount of livestock impact and noticed what’s emerged.”

Bushes and natural fences are a excellent songbird habitat, she explains, but now they’re trimming some of the brambles to establish a more diversity of ecosystems and to join two parts of the land. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to establish, but saplings from the adjacent woodland are already taking root in the open areas; the group have been installing protectors to protect them from animals.

Animals Comes Back in Abundance

It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is coming back in droves. This year they’ve spotted reptiles, slowworms, bats and invertebrates, explains Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (similar to a mat over a small hollow in the earth). “You find snakes and animals hiding under there, but it’s probably a slightly chilly for them now.” Wild nests, built using empty sections of timber and active with insects, are strapped to some of the woodland. The removal of animals has provided small creatures space to prosper in the meadows. When they explored this summer, comments Bennett, “I’d never seen so numerous insects. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”

Origins of the Project

The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and two others – united as youth, studying or having 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 seeming impossible, Greta Thunberg was guiding the youth protests for eco-awareness, and advocate Clover Hogan was addressing youth feeling “environmental stress”. It was also the time of the author's book, on rewilding, on how she and her husband revitalized the a Sussex location from a struggling agricultural business into a thriving wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what could be the function for youth?” questions Easton. “So we made a website and contacted many of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders seeking to take action and you are short on capacity?’”

Durant adds the story: “Our entire organisation was essentially based on the belief that there were individuals who were ready to allow a collection of youthful amateurs on to their property without strict rules, to decide on fairly massive actions that would affect land value