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That richly complex song of the nightingale is a uncommon occurrence in the UK today, however not at this rural location. Four years ago, a single bird could be heard at this remote location in rural Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were listening to them chirping all night, from several zones,” notes Meg Cookson, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A group of Youngwilders were camping out at the property, however the birds were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An professional from the local conservation group came to help them trap and mark one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never held a nightingale in his possession before. He was crying.”

Habitat Revival Speeds Up at the Surrey Site

Ecological restoration is by nature a gradual business, but at this site at the farm, after just several seasons, the outcomes are already evident, and audible. The farm was once a haven for equines. Today it’s a example for the youth-led purpose: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the ecologically impoverished countries in the world, and to link young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often powerless to prevent. Rising temperatures persists, tree clearing destroys ecosystems, and one more international meeting draws to a frustrating end in Brazil – so what person could fault young people for wanting to initiate change themselves?

The organisation was founded on the notion that there were individuals ready to allow a group of young enthusiasts on to their estate

“The newer cohort is the best educated environmentally that there’s previously,” explains the group's co-director, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have played the minimal role to their causing, and, then, are also going to experience consequences the greatest as a consequence.”

Change of the Landscape

Today, the group is taking root across the United Kingdom – and this location started it all, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and where we established our connections,” says a founding member, as she provides a walkthrough of the 30-acre land. “This used to be multiple separate areas,” she states, as we stroll through overgrown meadows featuring bushes, hemmed by mature woodland. “The main noticeable change is that we’ve removed all the fencing, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like a single environment.” In the recent season, they donned hazmat suits and cleared significant quantities of invasive plants, an invasive species that can irritate the skin. “We’ve established numerous of bush lines,” explains the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a brief period. We’ve reduced a large part of livestock impact and seen what’s come up.”

Bushes and hedgerows are a perfect songbird habitat, she comments, however currently they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to create a greater variety of environments and to join separate areas of the land. Fresh plantings will take a while to take root, but new growth from the surrounding woodland are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the team have been installing barriers to shield them from wildlife.

Nature Comes Back in Abundance

There's more than the nightingales – animals is coming back in droves. Lately they’ve observed reptiles, legless lizards, flyers and invertebrates, explains another co-director, as he uncovers one of their monitoring tools (like a doormat over a depression in the soil). “You discover snakes and wildlife sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a slightly cold for them now.” Natural beehives, built using empty sections of wood and active with insects, are attached to some of the woodland. The lack of animals has provided small creatures room to flourish in the long grass. When they came to this summer, comments the director, “I’d never encountered so numerous butterflies. There were just masses of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”

Beginnings of the Movement

The first founders – Noah, Jack, Easton and two others – came together as students, studying or expressing an concern in nature. In the recent past, the IPCC was indicating that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of climate change was seeming unachievable, the activist was leading the youth protests for climate movement, and activist another voice was discussing youth feeling “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of the author's book, on rewilding, on how she and her husband changed the a nearby property from a struggling farm into a thriving natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what could be the role for the next generation?” says Molly. “So we developed a platform and contacted loads of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you occasionally get your landowners seeking to do something and you are short on time?’”

Durant adds the story: “Our entire organisation was essentially premised on the idea that there were landowners who were willing to permit a collection of youthful idiots on to their property freely, to decide on major decisions that would impact land value