That beautifully intricate melody of the songbird is a uncommon presence in the UK these days, yet not at Maple Farm. Four years ago, a solitary bird could be detected at this hidden place in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were hearing them calling all night, from several zones,” notes one ecologist, top biologist for the Youngwilders. A group of volunteers were camping out at the site, but the nightingales were so noisy, “we were unable to rest all night,” remarks 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, the ecologist recalls: “He’d never held a songbird in his hands before. He was teary.”
Rewilding Progresses at Maple Farm
Rewilding is by its very essence a slow endeavor, but in this place at this property, after just several seasons, the results are already apparent, and noticeable. The farm previously served as a sanctuary for equines. Now it’s a example for the youth-led mission: to hasten ecological restoration, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the planet, and to link youth (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often shut out of, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to stop. Rising temperatures continues, tree clearing damages ecosystems, and one more international meeting comes to a disappointing conclusion in the host country – so what person could blame young people for choosing to act independently?
Our project was based on the notion that there were people prepared to let a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their property
“The youth is the most informed environmentally that there’s historically,” says the Youngwilders’ founder, a key figure. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have contributed the smallest part to their origin, and, then, are also going to be affected the greatest as a consequence.”
Change of the Site
Today, the organisation is taking root across the UK – and Maple Farm started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and where we created our connections,” notes Molly Easton, as she offers a walkthrough of the 30-acre land. “This once consisted of divided plots,” she states, as we stroll through tall vegetation filled with shrubs, bordered by established trees. “The key noticeable difference is that we’ve removed all the fencing, a significant length of it, to create the impression like one environment.” In the summer, they used special clothing and cleared large amounts of invasive plants, an non-native plant that can irritate the body. “We’ve planted loads of hedgerows,” says Easton. “But the primary focus is we’ve just let it breathe for a little bit. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of grazing pressure and seen what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and hedgerows are a perfect songbird environment, she comments, however now they’re managing some of the brambles to develop a greater diversity of environments and to connect different sections of the property. Young saplings will take considerably longer to take root, but saplings from the adjacent trees are already taking root in the open areas; the group have been setting up guards to shield them from wildlife.
Animals Comes Back in Abundance
It’s not just the nightingales – wildlife is returning in large numbers. Recently they’ve spotted grass snakes, slowworms, nocturnal mammals and invertebrates, notes a team member, as he uncovers one of their monitoring tools (such as a mat over a indentation in the ground). “You get creatures and things sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a slightly cold for them now.” Wild beehives, built using empty sections of tree trunk and humming with insects, are fixed to some of the plants. The lack of animals has given insects opportunity to prosper in the long grass. When they came to this time, says he, “I’d not once seen so countless butterflies. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Origins of the Initiative
The first participants – Bennett, Jack, Easton and two others – united as youth, studying or expressing an concern in nature. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was indicating that the acceptable threshold of 1.5C of climate change was appearing impossible, Greta Thunberg was spearheading the youth protests for environmental action, and campaigner Clover Hogan was talking about youth suffering from “environmental stress”. It was also the era of the author's book, Wilding, on how she and her husband changed the Knepp Estate from a failing dairy farm into a thriving ecosystem. “We were deeply influenced by the case study, but what could be the function for young people?” says Easton. “So we developed a platform and contacted many of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders seeking to do something and you are short on resources?’”
Durant adds the narrative: “Our entire initiative was fundamentally based on the belief that there were people who were prepared to allow a group of youthful enthusiasts on to their property indiscriminately, to make major actions that would change land value
