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The richly complex call of the songbird is a rare sound in England today, but not at this rural location. Four years ago, a solitary bird could be noticed at this secluded location in rural Surrey; lately, they were all around. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from several zones,” notes one ecologist, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A group of volunteers were residing temporarily at the property, yet the nightingales were so boisterous, “we were unable to rest all night,” comments Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the regional nature organization came to help them net and ring one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his possession before. He was emotional.”

Rewilding Accelerates at This Location

Ecological restoration is by its very essence a lengthy process, but here at this property, after only four years, the changes are already visible, and audible. The property used to be a sanctuary for horses. Currently it’s a showpiece for the youth-led mission: to hasten nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor countries in the world, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often denied access to, and a environmental emergency they are often powerless to prevent. Climate change advances, deforestation damages ecosystems, and another Cop summit draws to a frustrating end in Brazil – so what person could blame young people for wanting to take matters into their own hands?

The project was based on the belief that there were landowners prepared to let a group of young amateurs on to their property

“The younger generation is the most informed ecologically that there’s historically,” explains the Youngwilders’ founder, one organizer. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have played the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to suffer the greatest as a result.”

Transformation of the Property

Currently, the organisation is taking root across the UK – and the original site was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and the place we built our connections,” says a founding member, as she offers a overview of the 12-hectare land. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she comments, as we stroll through overgrown meadows featuring bushes, surrounded by forest. “The primary visible change is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, a significant length of it, to make it feel like one environment.” In the summer, they used protective gear and removed large amounts of invasive plants, an aggressive flora that can harm the flesh. “We’ve established loads of bush lines,” notes Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just let it breathe for a short time. We’ve removed a large part of livestock impact and seen what’s come up.”

Low scrub and natural fences are a perfect nightingale habitat, she explains, but currently they’re managing some of the brambles to create a more variety of environments and to join separate areas of the land. Fresh plantings will take much more time to grow, but saplings from the surrounding oaks are already establishing themselves in the fields; the group have been installing guards to shield them from animals.

Wildlife Reappears in Abundance

There's more than the songbirds – fauna is coming back in large numbers. Lately they’ve observed reptiles, legless lizards, flyers and invertebrates, explains another co-director, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (such as a cover over a depression in the earth). “You get reptiles and animals residing under there, but it’s likely a somewhat chilly for them now.” Natural beehives, made from carved parts of timber and humming with pollinators, are attached to some of the trees. The removal of livestock has given small creatures room to thrive in the meadows. When they came to this summer, states Bennett, “I’d not ever encountered so many insects. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”

Origins of the Movement

The initial Youngwilders – Noah, Durant, Molly and additional members – united as students, studying or expressing an interest in ecology. In 2019, the climate experts was predicting that the target of one and a half degrees of warming was appearing out of reach, the activist was guiding the demonstrations for environmental action, and activist a speaker was talking about young people suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the time of the author's book, on rewilding, on how the authors revitalized the a nearby property from a failing dairy farm into a successful natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what could be the part for young people?” asks Easton. “So we developed a online presence and contacted numerous of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners wanting to take action and you don’t have time?’”

Jack continues the account: “Our complete project was fundamentally based on the belief that there were people who were willing to allow a collection of young enthusiasts on to their land indiscriminately, to take major decisions that would change land value