The manically melodic song of the nightingale is a rare presence in the UK these days, yet not at this rural location. Back in 2020, a lone bird could be detected at this hidden location in rural Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them calling all night, from multiple areas,” explains a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the Youngwilders. A band of participants were camping out at the location, but the nightingales were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” comments an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the nightingales the next morning, she states: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was teary.”
Rewilding Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Nature recovery is by its very essence a gradual process, but here at this property, after only a short period, the changes are already evident, and noticeable. The land previously served as a haven for equines. Now it’s a example for the youth-led goal: to speed up ecological restoration, in one of the biodiversity-poor nations in the world, and to engage young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to stop. Climate change continues, tree clearing damages ecosystems, and another climate conference ends with a frustrating outcome in abroad – so what person could fault young people for wanting to take matters into their own hands?
The project was premised on the notion that there were people willing to permit a bunch of young idiots on to their property
“The youth is the best educated environmentally that there’s ever been,” says the Youngwilders’ founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have added the minimal role to their creation, and, then, are also going to experience consequences most as a outcome.”
Change of the Landscape
Now, the group is taking root across the United Kingdom – and this location started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and where we built our network,” notes Molly Easton, as she offers a tour of the 30-acre site. “This used to be divided plots,” she says, as we walk through long grass dotted with bushes, bordered by established trees. “The primary visual difference is that we’ve taken out all the barriers, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like a single landscape.” In the summer, they used hazmat suits and removed significant quantities of giant hogweed, an aggressive flora that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve established loads of hedgerows,” notes the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve eliminated a large part of grazing pressure and noticed what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a excellent songbird environment, she says, although today they’re managing some of the thorny plants to establish a increased range of ecosystems and to join different sections of the land. Fresh plantings will take a while to take root, but young trees from the adjacent trees are already growing in the meadows; the group have been setting up barriers to protect them from grazing deer.
Nature Returns in Droves
In addition to the nightingales – wildlife is coming back in abundance. Recently they’ve spotted reptiles, legless lizards, flyers and invertebrates, explains another co-director, as he raises one of their survey equipment (like a doormat over a depression in the soil). “You find snakes and animals sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cool for them now.” Natural beehives, built using empty parts of wood and active with wild bees, are fixed to some of the woodland. The absence of livestock has provided small creatures room to flourish in the long grass. When they visited this summer, comments the director, “I’d never seen so many insects. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Origins of the Movement
The initial Youngwilders – Noah, Jack, Easton and additional members – came together as students, pursuing or sharing an passion in environmental science. In the recent past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the target of one and a half degrees of climate change was appearing unachievable, a prominent figure was leading the youth protests for eco-awareness, and advocate a speaker was addressing the generation suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of the author's publication, about nature recovery, on how they changed the a nearby property from a struggling dairy farm into a thriving wildlife haven. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what was the part for young people?” says Molly. “So we made a platform and contacted loads of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your landowners wishing to do something and you lack time?’”
Jack continues the account: “Our complete initiative was basically premised on the belief that there were individuals who were ready to permit a bunch of youthful enthusiasts on to their property without strict rules, to make fairly massive actions that would change land value
