That manically melodic melody of the songbird is a rare occurrence in Britain today, but it's different at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a single bird could be detected at this remote location in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were everywhere. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from multiple areas,” says one ecologist, top biologist for the youth rewilding group. A team of Youngwilders were camping out at the site, however the birds were so noisy, “we stayed awake all night,” says an engagement lead. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so incredible.” An professional from the regional nature organization came to help them capture and tag one of the songbirds the next morning, she recalls: “He’d never touched a songbird in his hands before. He was emotional.”
Habitat Revival Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by nature a gradual process, but in this place at this property, after just several seasons, the results are already evident, and noticeable. The property previously served as a sanctuary for animals. Now it’s a model for the youth-led mission: to speed up ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and to connect young people (18-30-year-olds) with a environment they are often shut out of, and a global warming issue they are often ineffectual to halt. Global heating persists, habitat loss damages natural habitats, and one more Cop summit ends with a frustrating end in the host country – so what person could criticize young people for wishing to act independently?
The initiative was based on the belief that there were landowners willing to permit a collection of youthful idiots on to their estate
“The newer cohort is the best educated environmentally that there’s previously,” says the Youngwilders’ co-director, Jack Durant. They are also “the highly invested in the challenges, and have played the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a outcome.”
Change of the Landscape
Today, the organisation is taking root across the UK – and the original site was the beginning, in every sense. “It’s the initial project, and where we built our community,” notes another co-director, as she gives a overview of the 30-acre site. “This once consisted of multiple separate areas,” she says, as we walk through overgrown meadows filled with bushes, surrounded by established trees. “The key visible change is that we’ve removed all the barriers, over a kilometer of it, to create the impression like one landscape.” In the summer, they donned protective gear and removed significant quantities of harmful weeds, an invasive species that can burn the body. “We’ve established loads of bush lines,” explains Easton. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve removed a significant amount of animal feeding and observed what’s come up.”
Bushes and hedgerows are a ideal nightingale habitat, she explains, although today they’re managing some of the wild growth to create a increased range of ecosystems and to connect separate areas of the property. Fresh plantings will take a while to grow, but new growth from the nearby trees are already growing in the open areas; the crew have been placing barriers to safeguard them from grazing deer.
Wildlife Returns in Abundance
It’s not just the songbirds – fauna is coming back in abundance. Lately they’ve seen reptiles, slowworms, nocturnal mammals and insects, explains another co-director, as he uncovers one of their monitoring tools (like a cover over a small hollow in the earth). “You find creatures and things hiding under there, but it’s probably a bit chilly for them now.” Natural nests, made from empty parts of timber and humming with insects, are attached to some of the plants. The absence of grazing horses has given small creatures space to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they explored this summer, comments he, “I’d not ever observed so many lepidoptera. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is occurring?’”
Beginnings of the Movement
The initial participants – Bennett, Jack, Easton and additional members – united as youth, pursuing or expressing an passion in environmental science. In the recent past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was indicating that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of global heating was seeming impossible, a prominent figure was leading the youth protests for environmental action, and advocate another voice was addressing the generation experiencing “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of a writer's publication, on rewilding, on how she and her husband revitalized the Knepp Estate from a failing dairy farm into a successful natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what was the role for the next generation?” says Molly. “So we created a platform and rang up loads of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you ever get your estate holders wanting to take action and you don’t have resources?’”
Jack explains the narrative: “Our entire initiative was fundamentally based on the notion that there were individuals who were ready to allow a group of youthful amateurs on to their estate indiscriminately, to take fairly massive decisions that would change land value
