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The richly complex melody of the songbird is a rare occurrence in England nowadays, but not at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a solitary nightingale could be heard at this hidden place in rural Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them singing all night, from several zones,” notes one ecologist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A team of Youngwilders were staying overnight at the property, yet the nightingales were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” comments an engagement lead. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so cool.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them trap and mark one of the birds the next morning, she states: “He’d never handled a songbird in his hands before. He was teary.”

Habitat Revival Progresses at the Surrey Site

Ecological restoration is by nature a gradual business, but at this site at this property, after only four years, the results are already visible, and hearable. The property previously served as a haven for horses. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ mission: to speed up nature recovery, in one of the biodiversity-poor nations in the world, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a global warming issue they are often unable to halt. Climate change advances, habitat loss eliminates natural habitats, and one more international meeting ends with a disappointing end in abroad – so what person could criticize youth for wanting to take matters into their own hands?

The project was based on the idea that there were individuals willing to permit a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their land

“The youth is the most informed in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” explains the Youngwilders’ leader, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the issues, and have played the minimal role to their creation, and, then, are also going to experience consequences most as a consequence.”

Revitalization of the Property

Today, the group is expanding across the United Kingdom – and the original site was the beginning, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and the place we established our network,” notes Molly Easton, as she gives a walkthrough of the expansive land. “This was previously six different fields,” she says, as we walk through overgrown meadows featuring bushes, bordered by forest. “The primary visible difference is that we’ve eliminated all the fencing, a significant length of it, to give the sense like a unified area.” In the summer, they wore hazmat suits and cleared masses of harmful weeds, an aggressive flora that can irritate the skin. “We’ve established loads of natural barriers,” says she. “But the key action is we’ve just let it breathe for a brief period. We’ve removed a significant amount of grazing pressure and observed what’s sprung up.”

Low scrub and natural fences are a ideal nightingale habitat, she comments, however today they’re managing some of the thorny plants to establish a increased diversity of ecosystems and to link up separate areas of the site. New trees will take much more time to grow, but young trees from the adjacent oaks are already establishing themselves in the fields; the crew have been installing guards to shield them from animals.

Wildlife Returns in Droves

There's more than the songbirds – fauna is returning in abundance. Recently they’ve seen grass snakes, legless lizards, flyers and insects, says Noah Bennett, as he lifts up one of their survey equipment (like a doormat over a indentation in the soil). “You get creatures and wildlife hiding under there, but it’s possibly a slightly chilly for them now.” Organic homes, constructed from hollowed-out sections of tree trunk and buzzing with pollinators, are fixed to some of the woodland. The absence of grazing horses has given insects opportunity to prosper in the meadows. When they explored this time, comments he, “I’d not ever observed so numerous lepidoptera. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is happening?’”

Beginnings of the Movement

The first Youngwilders – Noah, Jack, Easton and more individuals – formed as students, studying or sharing an concern in environmental science. In the recent past, the IPCC was predicting that the target of one and a half degrees of warming was seeming unachievable, a prominent figure was spearheading the youth protests for climate movement, and activist Clover Hogan was talking about the generation suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the period of Isabella Tree’s publication, Wilding, on how they revitalized the a nearby property from a failing farm into a successful wildlife haven. “We were highly motivated by the Knepp story, but what could be the role for youth?” questions Easton. “So we created a online presence and rang up many of environmental organizations and were saying, ‘Do you ever get your landowners wanting to do something and you are short on time?’”

Durant continues the narrative: “Our complete project was essentially based on the idea that there were landowners who were willing to permit a group of youthful idiots on to their land without strict rules, to take major actions that would affect land value