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The manically melodic song of the songbird is a scarce sound in Britain nowadays, yet not at this rural location. Four years ago, a solitary nightingale could be noticed at this hidden location in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them singing all night, from five different territories,” notes one ecologist, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A group of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the site, but the nightingales were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson states: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his hands before. He was emotional.”

Ecological Restoration Accelerates at the Surrey Site

Nature recovery is by nature a lengthy process, but here at this property, after only several seasons, the outcomes are already evident, and hearable. The land used to be a retirement home for equines. Now it’s a showpiece for the youth-led mission: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the world, and to engage youth (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to halt. Rising temperatures continues, habitat loss destroys ecosystems, and another international meeting draws to a unsatisfactory outcome in Brazil – so who could criticize young people for choosing to take matters into their own hands?

The project was premised on the idea that there were landowners prepared to permit a bunch of young idiots on to their property

“The younger generation is the most knowledgeable ecologically that there’s historically,” says the group's leader, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have played the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected most as a consequence.”

Change of the Site

Currently, the organisation is taking root across the UK – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and where we established our connections,” says a founding member, as she offers a tour of the 30-acre site. “This was previously divided plots,” she says, as we move through overgrown meadows featuring shrubs, surrounded by established trees. “The main noticeable change is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like a unified area.” In the warmer months, they used hazmat suits and removed significant quantities of giant hogweed, an invasive species that can burn the body. “We’ve established loads of natural barriers,” says the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a little bit. We’ve removed a significant amount of livestock impact and observed what’s sprung up.”

Bushes and shrub lines are a ideal nightingale home, she comments, however now they’re trimming some of the wild growth to establish a more diversity of environments and to link up different sections of the site. New trees will take a while to establish, but new growth from the surrounding trees are already growing in the meadows; the crew have been setting up protectors to protect them from grazing deer.

Nature Comes Back in Droves

In addition to the nightingales – fauna is coming back in abundance. Lately they’ve observed grass snakes, creatures, flyers and invertebrates, says another co-director, as he raises one of their reptile mats (like a mat over a small hollow in the ground). “You find reptiles and animals residing under there, but it’s likely a slightly chilly for them now.” Organic beehives, built using hollowed-out pieces of timber and buzzing with wild bees, are attached to some of the woodland. The removal of animals has given insects room to thrive in the long grass. When they came to this summer, states Bennett, “I’d not ever observed so countless lepidoptera. There were just masses of them. We were like, ‘What is occurring?’”

Beginnings of the Movement

The initial founders – Noah, Durant, Molly and additional members – formed as learners, pursuing or having an concern in environmental science. In that year, the IPCC was indicating that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of warming was appearing impossible, a prominent figure was guiding the school strikes for environmental action, and campaigner Clover Hogan was addressing young people suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s work, on rewilding, on how they revitalized the a nearby property from a failing dairy farm into a flourishing ecosystem. “We were highly motivated by the example, but what could be the role for the next generation?” questions Easton. “So we created a website and rang up numerous of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your landowners seeking to make changes and you lack capacity?’”

Jack continues the narrative: “Our whole initiative was essentially based on the notion that there were landowners who were willing to allow a group of youthful amateurs on to their land indiscriminately, to decide on fairly massive decisions that would impact land value