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The beautifully intricate melody of the nightingale is a rare occurrence in England nowadays, yet it's different at the Surrey site. Back in 2020, a single nightingale could be heard at this hidden place in the countryside of Surrey; lately, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them calling all night, from five different territories,” explains a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the youth rewilding group. A group of volunteers were staying overnight at the location, however the birds were so loud, “we were unable to rest all night,” says Layla Mapemba. “We were all worn out the next day, but it was so amazing.” An expert from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the songbirds the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never handled a nightingale in his care before. He was teary.”

Rewilding Accelerates at This Location

Ecological restoration is by nature a gradual process, but here at the farm, after just several seasons, the outcomes are already evident, and noticeable. The land used to be a haven for horses. Currently it’s a showpiece for the Youngwilders’ mission: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the globe, and to link youth (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a global warming issue they are often ineffectual to halt. Climate change persists, deforestation destroys wildlife homes, and yet another climate conference ends with a disappointing end in Brazil – so who could criticize youth for choosing to take matters into their own hands?

Our project was founded on the belief that there were landowners willing to permit a bunch of youthful enthusiasts on to their estate

“The newer cohort is the most informed environmentally that there’s previously,” explains the group's leader, a key figure. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the problems, and have added the minimal role to their creation, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a consequence.”

Transformation of the Landscape

Now, the organisation is growing across the United Kingdom – and this location started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we established our network,” says a founding member, as she offers a walkthrough of the expansive land. “This was previously six different fields,” she says, as we move through tall vegetation dotted with shrubs, surrounded by mature woodland. “The primary visible change is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to make it feel like a unified environment.” In the recent season, they wore special clothing and removed large amounts of harmful weeds, an invasive species that can harm the body. “We’ve introduced loads of natural barriers,” says Easton. “But the key action is we’ve just allowed it to rest for a brief period. We’ve reduced a significant amount of animal feeding and noticed what’s emerged.”

Underbrush and shrub lines are a ideal songbird habitat, she explains, although today they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to develop a greater diversity of habitats and to link up two parts of the property. Young saplings will take much more time to establish, but saplings from the adjacent oaks are already establishing themselves in the fields; the crew have been setting up barriers to shield them from wildlife.

Wildlife Comes Back in Droves

In addition to the nightingales – fauna is reappearing in droves. Lately they’ve observed grass snakes, creatures, bats and insects, notes another co-director, as he lifts up one of their monitoring tools (such as a doormat over a indentation in the earth). “You discover creatures and animals hiding under there, but it’s likely a somewhat cool for them now.” Wild beehives, made from empty sections of timber and buzzing with pollinators, are strapped to some of the trees. The absence of grazing horses has provided invertebrates room to prosper in the long grass. When they explored this season, states Bennett, “I’d not once encountered so numerous lepidoptera. There were just clouds of them. We were saying, ‘What is happening?’”

Origins of the Initiative

The initial participants – Bennett, Durant, Easton and additional members – united as youth, pursuing or having an passion in nature. In 2019, the IPCC was predicting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of climate change was appearing out of reach, a prominent figure was leading the youth protests for environmental action, and activist a speaker was discussing youth experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the time of a writer's publication, on rewilding, on how she and her husband transformed the a Sussex location from a unsuccessful dairy farm into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were deeply influenced by the Knepp story, but what could be the function for the next generation?” says Easton. “So we created a website and called loads of wildlife trusts and were saying, ‘Do you sometimes get your landowners wanting to take action and you are short on resources?’”

Durant explains the story: “Our whole project was essentially premised on the notion that there were landowners who were ready to allow a bunch of youthful enthusiasts on to their property without strict rules, to take fairly massive choices that would change land value