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The beautifully intricate song of the songbird is a uncommon presence in the UK these days, but it's different at this rural location. Back in 2020, a lone bird could be noticed at this secluded location in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them singing all night, from multiple areas,” says Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the eco-activist organization. A team of volunteers were residing temporarily at the site, yet the nightingales were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” comments an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An specialist from the local conservation group came to help them net and ring one of the songbirds the next morning, she states: “He’d never held a nightingale in his care before. He was crying.”

Habitat Revival Progresses at the Surrey Site

Rewilding is by definition a slow endeavor, but at this site at the farm, after merely a short period, the outcomes are already visible, and noticeable. The land was once a retirement home for animals. Currently it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to hasten ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often denied access to, and a global warming issue they are often ineffectual to stop. Climate change advances, habitat loss damages wildlife homes, and yet another Cop summit comes to a unsatisfactory conclusion in Brazil – so who could criticize youth for wishing to take matters into their own hands?

Our initiative was based on the notion that there were individuals willing to allow a group of youthful idiots on to their land

“The younger generation is the most informed environmentally that there’s ever been,” states the Youngwilders’ founder, one organizer. They are also “the highly invested in the problems, and have contributed the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected most as a result.”

Transformation of the Landscape

Today, the initiative is growing across the Britain – and the original site started it all, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and where we created our connections,” says a founding member, as she gives a tour of the 30-acre site. “This was previously six different fields,” she comments, as we walk through overgrown meadows dotted with shrubs, surrounded by forest. “The main noticeable difference is that we’ve removed all the barriers, over a kilometer of it, to give the sense like a unified environment.” In the summer, they wore hazmat suits and eradicated masses of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can burn the body. “We’ve introduced loads of bush lines,” notes Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve eliminated a lot of animal feeding and noticed what’s come up.”

Underbrush and shrub lines are a ideal songbird environment, she comments, although currently they’re trimming some of the thorny plants to establish a more range of ecosystems and to join separate areas of the property. Young saplings will take much more time to establish, but saplings from the nearby oaks are already growing in the meadows; the group have been setting up barriers to protect them from wildlife.

Animals Returns in Abundance

It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is coming back in droves. Recently they’ve observed serpents, slowworms, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, says a team member, as he uncovers one of their survey equipment (similar to a cover over a depression in the ground). “You get snakes and animals hiding under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cool for them now.” Natural homes, made from hollowed-out sections of timber and active with wild bees, are attached to some of the woodland. The lack of grazing horses has given small creatures room to flourish in the meadows. When they visited this summer, says he, “I’d never encountered so numerous butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”

Inception of the Movement

The original Youngwilders – Noah, Jack, Easton and two others – came together as learners, studying or sharing an interest in ecology. In that year, the climate experts was predicting that the target of 1.5C of warming was seeming impossible, Greta Thunberg was leading the youth protests for eco-awareness, and advocate another voice was talking about the generation feeling “eco-worry”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s book, on rewilding, on how the authors transformed the a nearby property from a struggling agricultural business into a successful natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the Knepp story, but what was the function for young people?” questions Easton. “So we made a online presence and rang up loads of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your property owners wanting to do something and you don’t have time?’”

Durant adds the narrative: “Our entire organisation was essentially premised on the idea that there were people who were ready to permit a group of youthful idiots on to their property without strict rules, to make major actions that would affect land value