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That richly complex call of the nightingale is a uncommon occurrence in the UK these days, however not at this rural location. Back in 2020, a single bird could be noticed at this remote place in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them calling all night, from multiple areas,” explains one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A group of volunteers were residing temporarily at the location, yet the birds were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so incredible.” An specialist from the local conservation group came to help them trap and mark one of the birds the next morning, the ecologist states: “He’d never held a nightingale in his hands before. He was emotional.”

Rewilding Speeds Up at the Surrey Site

Ecological restoration is by its very essence a gradual business, but at this site at this property, after only four years, the outcomes are already visible, and audible. The farm previously served as a sanctuary for animals. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to hasten habitat revival, in one of the biodiversity-poor countries in the planet, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to prevent. Climate change persists, tree clearing damages ecosystems, and one more international meeting ends with a frustrating end in the host country – so who could fault young people for wishing to act independently?

Our organisation was founded on the belief that there were landowners ready to allow a collection of young enthusiasts on to their estate

“The newer cohort is the best educated environmentally that there’s historically,” states the group's founder, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have added the minimal role to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a result.”

Revitalization of the Site

Now, the organisation is expanding across the UK – and this location was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and the place we built our network,” notes Molly Easton, as she gives a tour of the expansive site. “This used to be six different fields,” she states, as we move through long grass filled with shrubs, surrounded by mature woodland. “The key noticeable transformation is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like a unified area.” In the warmer months, they wore special clothing and cleared masses of giant hogweed, an non-native plant that can burn the flesh. “We’ve established many of natural barriers,” says Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of livestock impact and noticed what’s come up.”

Underbrush and hedgerows are a ideal songbird home, she comments, but now they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to create a greater diversity of environments and to link up two parts of the property. Fresh plantings will take much more time to take root, but young trees from the adjacent oaks are already taking root in the meadows; the team have been setting up guards to shield them from wildlife.

Nature Reappears in Large Numbers

There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is reappearing in abundance. Lately they’ve seen grass snakes, legless lizards, flyers and invertebrates, notes a team member, as he raises one of their survey equipment (such as a mat over a indentation in the soil). “You discover creatures and wildlife residing under there, but it’s possibly a bit chilly for them now.” Organic nests, built using hollowed-out pieces of wood and buzzing with wild bees, are strapped to some of the woodland. The removal of animals has given invertebrates room to flourish in the long grass. When they came to this summer, says the director, “I’d not once encountered so countless insects. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”

Origins of the Initiative

The original Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Molly and additional members – formed as students, pursuing or sharing an interest in ecology. In that year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of global heating was seeming impossible, a prominent figure was spearheading the demonstrations for eco-awareness, and campaigner a speaker was discussing youth experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the era of Isabella Tree’s work, Wilding, on how the authors revitalized the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what was the function for youth?” questions Molly. “So we developed a website and rang up numerous of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders wanting to take action and you don’t have resources?’”

Jack explains the narrative: “Our entire organisation was fundamentally founded on the notion that there were individuals who were ready to permit a collection of young idiots on to their property indiscriminately, to make fairly massive choices that would change land value