That beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a scarce sound in the UK nowadays, but it's different at Maple Farm. Four years ago, a single bird could be detected at this hidden spot in rural Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them singing all night, from multiple areas,” explains a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the youth rewilding group. A group of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the site, but the nightingales were so boisterous, “we stayed awake all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so incredible.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the nightingales the next morning, the ecologist remembers: “He’d never held a songbird in his possession before. He was teary.”
Ecological Restoration Speeds Up at Maple Farm
Ecological restoration is by definition a gradual process, but here at Maple Farm, after merely four years, the results are already apparent, and noticeable. The farm used to be a sanctuary for equines. Currently it’s a example for the youth-led purpose: to accelerate nature recovery, in one of the ecologically impoverished nations in the planet, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often powerless to halt. Rising temperatures advances, deforestation destroys natural habitats, and one more climate conference draws to a unsatisfactory end in abroad – so who could fault the younger generation for choosing to initiate change themselves?
Our initiative was founded on the notion that there were individuals prepared to permit a collection of young amateurs on to their land
“The younger generation is the most informed ecologically that there’s previously,” explains the Youngwilders’ founder, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the problems, and have played the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to experience consequences most as a result.”
Change of the Property
Today, the group is expanding across the United Kingdom – and Maple Farm planted the seed, in all respects. “It’s where we started, and the place we established our network,” explains a founding member, as she provides a walkthrough of the 12-hectare land. “This was previously six different fields,” she says, as we stroll through tall vegetation filled with shrubs, hemmed by established trees. “The primary visual transformation is that we’ve eliminated all the enclosures, 1.2km of it, to give the sense like a single environment.” In the recent season, they wore hazmat suits and cleared significant quantities of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can irritate the flesh. “We’ve established many of bush lines,” says the director. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a lot of animal feeding and seen what’s emerged.”
Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal songbird home, she comments, however currently they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to develop a greater diversity of environments and to connect separate areas of the site. Fresh plantings will take a while to take root, but saplings from the nearby woodland are already establishing themselves in the meadows; the team have been setting up barriers to safeguard them from animals.
Nature Returns in Abundance
It’s not just the nightingales – animals is coming back in droves. Lately they’ve spotted reptiles, legless lizards, bats and insects, explains a team member, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (like a doormat over a small hollow in the earth). “You find creatures and things hiding under there, but it’s possibly a bit chilly for them now.” Natural beehives, built using hollowed-out parts of timber and humming with wild bees, are attached to some of the trees. The lack of animals has provided insects opportunity to flourish in the long grass. When they came to this summer, comments the director, “I’d not once observed so numerous insects. There were just swarms of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Initiative
The initial participants – Noah, Jack, Easton and more individuals – came together as youth, studying or having an interest in environmental science. In 2019, the IPCC was indicating that the safe limit of 1.5C of warming was appearing out of reach, Greta Thunberg was leading the youth protests for eco-awareness, and advocate Clover Hogan was addressing youth suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the time of a writer's work, on rewilding, on how she and her husband transformed the a nearby property from a unsuccessful agricultural business into a thriving ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what could be the part for youth?” asks Easton. “So we made a online presence and contacted loads of environmental organizations and were like, ‘Do you ever get your property owners wishing to do something and you are short on time?’”
Jack adds the account: “Our whole initiative was basically premised on the notion that there were individuals who were prepared to allow a group of youthful amateurs on to their property indiscriminately, to take significant decisions that would impact land value
