‘It Totally Transformed My World!’ How Young Rewilders Transformed a Agricultural Property – and Launched a Movement

That beautifully intricate melody of the songbird is a rare presence in the UK these days, yet it's different at Maple Farm. Four years ago, a lone bird could be noticed at this remote location in rural Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were hearing them calling all night, from several zones,” says one ecologist, lead ecologist for the eco-activist organization. A group of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the property, but the birds were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” comments an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so cool.” An specialist from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, she remembers: “He’d never held a songbird in his hands before. He was crying.”

Ecological Restoration Speeds Up at This Location

Nature recovery is by nature a gradual endeavor, but in this place at Maple Farm, after merely a short period, the changes are already visible, and noticeable. The property used to be a retirement home for equines. Today it’s a showpiece for the youth-led purpose: to accelerate ecological restoration, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the world, and to engage young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often denied access to, and a climate crisis they are often ineffectual to halt. Rising temperatures advances, deforestation destroys ecosystems, and yet another international meeting ends with a disappointing end in Brazil – so who could blame the younger generation for wanting to take matters into their own hands?

The project was based on the belief that there were individuals ready to let a group of young amateurs on to their estate

“The younger generation is the best educated ecologically that there’s historically,” explains the group's founder, Jack Durant. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have contributed the least to their origin, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a result.”

Revitalization of the Property

Today, the group is growing across the Britain – and the original site started it all, in every sense. “It’s our origin point, and where we established our connections,” explains a founding member, as she provides a walkthrough of the expansive property. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she states, as we walk through overgrown meadows dotted with bushes, surrounded by mature woodland. “The main visible transformation is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to make it feel like a unified environment.” In the recent season, they wore hazmat suits and cleared significant quantities of harmful weeds, an invasive species that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve introduced loads of bush lines,” says the director. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve removed a large part of animal feeding and observed what’s come up.”

Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal nightingale habitat, she comments, but currently they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to establish a greater range of habitats and to join separate areas of the property. Young saplings will take a while to take root, but saplings from the surrounding trees are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the team have been installing guards to shield them from animals.

Nature Reappears in Droves

There's more than the songbirds – fauna is returning in droves. Lately they’ve observed serpents, creatures, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, explains Noah Bennett, as he raises one of their reptile mats (similar to a cover over a indentation in the soil). “You discover snakes and things sheltering under there, but it’s probably a bit cool for them now.” Organic nests, built using hollowed-out pieces of wood and buzzing with pollinators, are strapped to some of the woodland. The absence of livestock has provided insects opportunity to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they visited this season, says he, “I’d not ever observed so many lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”

Inception of the Movement

The original Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and additional members – formed as youth, studying or sharing an passion in ecology. In that year, the climate experts was predicting that the target of one and a half degrees of global heating was appearing impossible, a prominent figure was guiding the school strikes for eco-awareness, and advocate another voice was discussing young people suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the time of a writer's book, on rewilding, on how they revitalized the a nearby property from a failing agricultural business into a successful ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the example, but what was the role for young people?” says Molly. “So we made a online presence and called loads of wildlife trusts and were like, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders wanting to make changes and you lack time?’”

Jack explains the narrative: “Our entire organisation was essentially premised on the belief that there were people who were ready to permit a collection of young enthusiasts on to their land freely, to take major actions that would impact land value