That beautifully intricate call of the nightingale is a uncommon occurrence in England these days, yet it's different at this rural location. Four years ago, a lone bird could be noticed at this remote spot in the countryside of Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were hearing them calling all night, from multiple areas,” says Meg Cookson, top biologist for the eco-activist organization. A team of volunteers were staying overnight at the property, however the birds were so loud, “we stayed awake all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the nightingales the next morning, Cookson remembers: “He’d never handled a songbird in his possession before. He was crying.”
Rewilding Speeds Up at This Location
Rewilding is by nature a slow process, but here at the farm, after merely several seasons, the results are already apparent, and audible. The farm used to be a retirement home for equines. Currently it’s a model for the youth-led purpose: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the most nature-depleted regions in the world, and to engage youth (18-30-year-olds) with a ecosystem they are often excluded from, and a environmental emergency they are often unable to stop. Global heating advances, deforestation eliminates natural habitats, and yet another Cop summit ends with a unsatisfactory outcome in abroad – so who could criticize the younger generation for wishing to initiate change themselves?
The project was founded on the idea that there were people willing to permit a bunch of young amateurs on to their land
“The newer cohort is the best educated in terms of nature that there’s ever been,” says the group's founder, one organizer. They are also “the most emotionally involved in the challenges, and have added the smallest part to their creation, and, then, are also going to experience consequences most as a outcome.”
Change of the Landscape
Now, the initiative is expanding across the Britain – and the original site started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s where we started, and where we created our network,” says another co-director, as she gives a walkthrough of the 12-hectare land. “This used to be six different fields,” she says, as we walk through long grass featuring low scrub, hemmed by established trees. “The primary noticeable transformation is that we’ve eliminated all the enclosures, over a kilometer of it, to give the sense like a unified landscape.” In the warmer months, they wore hazmat suits and removed large amounts of harmful weeds, an aggressive flora that can irritate the skin. “We’ve established many of natural barriers,” notes she. “But the primary focus is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve reduced a large part of animal feeding and observed what’s come up.”
Underbrush and natural fences are a perfect nightingale environment, she explains, but currently they’re trimming some of the thorny plants to create a more variety of environments and to connect separate areas of the property. New trees will take much more time to take root, but young trees from the adjacent woodland are already taking root in the fields; the crew have been installing barriers to protect them from grazing deer.
Nature Returns in Abundance
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is coming back in large numbers. This year they’ve observed grass snakes, creatures, nocturnal mammals and bugs, says a team member, as he raises one of their reptile mats (similar to a mat over a depression in the ground). “You discover reptiles and animals hiding under there, but it’s probably a somewhat cold for them now.” Natural beehives, made from empty sections of timber and active with insects, are strapped to some of the trees. The lack of animals has allowed invertebrates space to thrive in the meadows. When they visited this time, states the director, “I’d never seen so many insects. There were just clouds of them. We were like, ‘What is going on?’”
Beginnings of the Project
The first founders – Bennett, Jack, Easton and more individuals – came together as youth, focusing on or having an passion in environmental science. In that year, the IPCC was indicating that the safe limit of 1.5C of climate change was seeming impossible, Greta Thunberg was leading the demonstrations for eco-awareness, and activist Clover Hogan was discussing the generation feeling “climate anxiety”. It was also the time of the author's work, about nature recovery, on how they changed the a Sussex location from a failing dairy farm into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were super-inspired by the case study, but what could be the role for young people?” says Easton. “So we created a website and called loads of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you occasionally get your estate holders seeking to take action and you don’t have resources?’”
Durant continues the story: “Our complete organisation was basically premised on the notion that there were people who were ready to allow a collection of youthful enthusiasts on to their estate without strict rules, to make fairly massive decisions that would affect land value
