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That richly complex song of the songbird is a rare occurrence in Britain nowadays, however not at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a lone nightingale could be noticed at this remote place in rural Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them singing all night, from five different territories,” explains Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A band of Youngwilders were camping out at the property, but the nightingales were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” says a project coordinator. “We were all exhausted the next day, but it was so incredible.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, she remembers: “He’d never handled a songbird in his possession before. He was emotional.”

Habitat Revival Speeds Up at the Surrey Site

Ecological restoration is by nature a gradual endeavor, but in this place at the farm, after only several seasons, the results are already visible, and noticeable. The property previously served as a sanctuary for equines. Currently it’s a showpiece for the youth-led purpose: to hasten habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the planet, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often excluded from, and a global warming issue they are often powerless to stop. Climate change advances, habitat loss eliminates natural habitats, and yet another international meeting ends with a unsatisfactory outcome in abroad – so what person could criticize youth for choosing to take matters into their own hands?

Our initiative was based on the belief that there were landowners prepared to permit a group of young amateurs on to their estate

“The younger generation is the most informed environmentally that there’s previously,” explains the Youngwilders’ founder, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the issues, and have contributed the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a consequence.”

Change of the Site

Currently, the group is taking root across the UK – and the original site started it all, in all respects. “It’s our origin point, and the place we created our community,” says a founding member, as she gives a walkthrough of the expansive land. “This was previously divided plots,” she says, as we move through tall vegetation featuring bushes, surrounded by mature woodland. “The key visual transformation is that we’ve removed all the enclosures, a significant length of it, to make it feel like a single landscape.” In the warmer months, they wore hazmat suits and removed large amounts of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve planted loads of bush lines,” says the director. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of livestock impact and noticed what’s come up.”

Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal nightingale home, she says, however currently they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to establish a greater variety of habitats and to link up two parts of the property. Young saplings will take considerably longer to grow, but new growth from the surrounding woodland are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the group have been setting up barriers to safeguard them from animals.

Wildlife Comes Back in Droves

There's more than the songbirds – animals is coming back in droves. Recently they’ve seen grass snakes, creatures, bats and insects, notes Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (like a doormat over a small hollow in the earth). “You discover creatures and animals hiding under there, but it’s likely a somewhat cold for them now.” Natural homes, made from carved parts of timber and buzzing with insects, are fixed to some of the plants. The absence of animals has allowed invertebrates space to flourish in the meadows. When they explored this season, states Bennett, “I’d not once encountered so numerous insects. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”

Inception of the Project

The first founders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and additional members – formed as students, pursuing or having an concern in ecology. In 2019, the climate experts was indicating that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of warming was appearing impossible, a prominent figure was guiding the demonstrations for environmental action, and advocate another voice was addressing youth experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of a writer's publication, Wilding, on how they changed the a Sussex location from a struggling dairy farm into a thriving wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what was the role for young people?” asks Molly. “So we made a website and contacted numerous of environmental organizations and were like, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders seeking to do something and you lack time?’”

Durant adds the account: “Our whole organisation was essentially premised on the notion that there were people who were willing to let a bunch of youthful enthusiasts on to their estate freely, to make major decisions that would affect land value