The manically melodic call of the songbird is a scarce sound in the UK these days, but not at the Surrey site. Four years ago, a lone bird could be heard at this remote place in rural Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were listening to them singing all night, from several zones,” says a lead scientist, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A band of volunteers were residing temporarily at the property, yet the birds were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” says a project coordinator. “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 songbirds the next morning, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his care before. He was emotional.”
Habitat Revival Accelerates at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by nature a lengthy endeavor, but in this place at this property, after only a short period, the changes are already visible, and hearable. The land used to be a sanctuary for animals. Currently it’s a model for the Youngwilders’ purpose: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the biodiversity-poor nations in the world, and to engage young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a climate crisis they are often unable to prevent. Global heating persists, tree clearing destroys natural habitats, and another international meeting comes to a frustrating outcome in the host country – so who could blame youth for choosing to act independently?
The organisation was based on the belief that there were individuals prepared to allow a bunch of young idiots on to their estate
“The younger generation is the most informed ecologically that there’s ever been,” states the Youngwilders’ co-director, a key figure. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have contributed the least to their causing, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a result.”
Change of the Property
Today, the initiative is growing across the Britain – and the original site was the beginning, in all respects. “It’s our origin point, and the place we built our connections,” explains another co-director, as she gives a tour of the 30-acre site. “This was previously multiple separate areas,” she states, as we move through long grass featuring shrubs, bordered by forest. “The primary visual difference is that we’ve removed all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like a single landscape.” In the recent season, they wore protective gear and cleared large amounts of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can irritate the body. “We’ve planted numerous of natural barriers,” notes Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve removed a large part of livestock impact and seen what’s come up.”
Underbrush and natural fences are a perfect songbird habitat, she explains, although now they’re cutting back some of the wild growth to develop a greater diversity of habitats and to connect separate areas of the property. Young saplings will take considerably longer to take root, but saplings from the adjacent oaks are already taking root in the open areas; the team have been installing barriers to safeguard them from grazing deer.
Wildlife Reappears in Droves
It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is reappearing in abundance. Lately they’ve spotted reptiles, slowworms, flyers and bugs, notes a team member, as he raises one of their monitoring tools (similar to a cover over a depression in the earth). “You discover reptiles and animals residing under there, but it’s likely a somewhat cold for them now.” Organic homes, built using empty sections of timber and humming with pollinators, are strapped to some of the plants. The removal of grazing horses has allowed insects space to flourish in the meadows. When they visited this time, says he, “I’d never seen so numerous butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were saying, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Initiative
The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Jack, Molly and more individuals – united as youth, focusing on or having an passion in nature. In the recent past, the climate experts was forecasting that the target of one and a half degrees of warming was appearing unachievable, a prominent figure was leading the demonstrations for eco-awareness, and advocate another voice was discussing youth feeling “environmental stress”. It was also the time of Isabella Tree’s book, Wilding, on how she and her husband revitalized the a nearby property from a unsuccessful agricultural business into a successful wildlife haven. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what could be the part for youth?” asks Molly. “So we developed a online presence and contacted numerous of conservation groups and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your property owners wishing to take action and you are short on capacity?’”
Durant explains the story: “Our entire organisation was fundamentally premised on the idea that there were people who were prepared to allow a collection of youthful idiots on to their estate without strict rules, to make significant decisions that would impact land value
