That beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a rare occurrence in England these days, however it's different at Maple Farm. Four years ago, a lone bird could be heard at this hidden place in rural Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were listening to them calling all night, from five different territories,” explains Meg Cookson, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A team of participants were camping out at the location, but the nightingales were so boisterous, “we stayed awake all night,” comments Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An specialist from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the birds the next morning, she remembers: “He’d never held a nightingale in his hands before. He was emotional.”
Ecological Restoration Progresses at Maple Farm
Ecological restoration is by nature a slow process, but here at this property, after only four years, the outcomes are already visible, and audible. The property was once a sanctuary for horses. Today it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ mission: to accelerate ecological restoration, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the globe, and to connect the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to stop. Rising temperatures advances, deforestation destroys wildlife homes, and yet another Cop summit ends with a frustrating conclusion in abroad – so who could blame the younger generation for choosing to act independently?
Our project was premised on the notion that there were individuals ready to permit a bunch of young amateurs on to their land
“The newer cohort is the best educated ecologically that there’s historically,” explains the group's founder, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have added the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a result.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Currently, the initiative is growing across the UK – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and where we created our connections,” notes another co-director, as she offers a overview of the 30-acre land. “This was previously multiple separate areas,” she states, as we stroll through tall vegetation dotted with shrubs, hemmed by mature woodland. “The main visual difference is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to create the impression like a unified landscape.” In the warmer months, they wore special clothing and cleared large amounts of invasive plants, an invasive species that can harm the skin. “We’ve introduced many of natural barriers,” says Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a brief period. We’ve eliminated a lot of livestock impact and noticed what’s sprung up.”
Low scrub and shrub lines are a perfect songbird habitat, she comments, however today they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to create a greater variety of habitats and to join separate areas of the site. Fresh plantings will take a while to establish, but saplings from the nearby oaks are already growing in the open areas; the crew have been setting up protectors to safeguard them from grazing deer.
Animals Reappears in Droves
In addition to the nightingales – animals is coming back in large numbers. Recently they’ve observed serpents, legless lizards, bats and insects, notes another co-director, as he uncovers one of their reptile mats (like a mat over a small hollow in the earth). “You get creatures and animals residing under there, but it’s possibly a bit cool for them now.” Organic beehives, constructed from empty pieces of wood and active with pollinators, are fixed to some of the plants. The removal of grazing horses has given small creatures space to flourish in the overgrown areas. When they explored this season, comments Bennett, “I’d not ever observed so countless butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Inception of the Movement
The first participants – Bennett, Durant, Easton and two others – came together as youth, focusing on or sharing an interest in environmental science. In 2019, the IPCC was forecasting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of global heating was seeming unachievable, Greta Thunberg was leading the school strikes for climate movement, and campaigner another voice was discussing young people feeling “environmental stress”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s publication, on rewilding, on how the authors changed the a Sussex location from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a thriving natural habitat. “We were super-inspired by the case study, but what was the role for young people?” asks Easton. “So we created a online presence and contacted loads of environmental organizations and were like, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders wishing to take action and you don’t have resources?’”
Durant adds the story: “Our whole organisation was basically premised on the idea that there were individuals who were ready to permit a collection of young enthusiasts on to their land without strict rules, to decide on fairly massive choices that would change land value
