The richly complex song of the songbird is a rare sound in the UK these days, yet not at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a solitary nightingale could be heard at this hidden location in rural Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were hearing them calling all night, from several zones,” explains Meg Cookson, lead ecologist for the eco-activist organization. A group of volunteers were residing temporarily at the property, however the nightingales were so loud, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the songbirds the next morning, she remembers: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his hands before. He was emotional.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Ecological restoration is by definition a slow process, but in this place at this property, after just several seasons, the results are already visible, and noticeable. The property previously served as a sanctuary for horses. Today it’s a example for the youth-led mission: to accelerate ecological restoration, in one of the biodiversity-poor countries in the world, and to connect the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to stop. Global heating continues, tree clearing destroys ecosystems, and yet another climate conference comes to a unsatisfactory outcome in the host country – so what person could blame the younger generation for choosing to take matters into their own hands?
Our project was based on the idea that there were individuals ready to permit a collection of young enthusiasts on to their land
“The younger generation is the most informed environmentally that there’s previously,” states the Youngwilders’ founder, one organizer. They are also “the highly invested in the problems, and have played the smallest part to their causing, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a consequence.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Now, the group is taking root across the Britain – and this location was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s the initial project, and the place we established our connections,” says another co-director, as she offers a walkthrough of the expansive property. “This was previously multiple separate areas,” she states, as we stroll through overgrown meadows filled with bushes, hemmed by established trees. “The primary noticeable change is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like one landscape.” In the summer, they wore special clothing and cleared large amounts of giant hogweed, an aggressive flora that can harm the skin. “We’ve established many of hedgerows,” says she. “But the main thing is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a short time. We’ve reduced a significant amount of livestock impact and seen what’s come up.”
Underbrush and shrub lines are a excellent songbird environment, she says, but now they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to create a greater variety of ecosystems and to link up different sections of the land. Fresh plantings will take considerably longer to take root, but new growth from the surrounding trees are already taking root in the meadows; the crew have been setting up barriers to shield them from wildlife.
Animals Returns in Abundance
In addition to the nightingales – animals is returning in abundance. This year they’ve observed grass snakes, slowworms, bats and invertebrates, says Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their reptile mats (similar to a mat over a depression in the earth). “You discover snakes and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s likely a somewhat cool for them now.” Organic beehives, constructed from carved sections of timber and active with pollinators, are fixed to some of the woodland. The removal of livestock has allowed invertebrates opportunity to prosper in the long grass. When they visited this summer, says Bennett, “I’d not ever encountered so countless insects. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”
Origins of the Movement
The original participants – Bennett, Jack, Easton and more individuals – united as learners, studying or having an passion in environmental science. In that year, the IPCC was predicting that the safe limit of 1.5C of climate change was looking impossible, Greta Thunberg was guiding the school strikes for eco-awareness, and campaigner Clover Hogan was discussing youth suffering from “climate anxiety”. It was also the period of a writer's work, about nature recovery, on how they changed the Knepp Estate from a failing dairy farm into a thriving ecosystem. “We were super-inspired by the Knepp story, but what could be the part for the next generation?” asks Easton. “So we created a platform and contacted loads of wildlife trusts and were like, ‘Do you ever get your landowners seeking to take action and you lack time?’”
Durant adds the narrative: “Our whole organisation was essentially premised on the belief that there were people who were willing to allow a group of young enthusiasts on to their estate indiscriminately, to make significant actions that would impact land value
