As we launch into a new year at Maple Farm, we take a moment to reflect on the year that was. And the year that was was iconic, to be honest with you. There’s been hogweed combat, butterfly hoards so dense they block out the sun, camera trap sleuthing, habitat building and more volunteer days than you can shake a stick at. However, as in the game of life itself, there can only be one winner. So in the spirit of hierarchy and victory, the Youngwilders team gathered to choose our favourite moments of Maple Farm’s 2023, season by season. Below are the results! Winter - Hedgeruary Between 1950 and ..read more

In what was the most complex operation Youngwilders have undertaken so far, in collaboration with young architecture collective Flimsy Studio, we disassembled two large equine field shelters at Maple Farm and repurposed them into an outdoor classroom. The outdoor classroom was kindly funded by Chichester District Council, The Titcomb Foundation and the Frederick Mulder Foundation, and was built by a phenomenal team of 33 young volunteers across two long weekends. It forms the cornerstone of our nature education ambitions going forward and we’re thrilled thinking about all the wilding knowledg ..read more

Maple Farm is Youngwilders’ most pioneering project. We’ve been very lucky to have the support and freedom to get experimental and work out new ways of running nature recovery work, and new ways of getting young people involved. In line with this forward-thinking theme to our work at Maple Farm, a new dawn hath arrived!  Youngwilders are running a new scheme called the Wild Stewards Programme. The idea is that young people will sign up as ‘Project Officers’ and be provided with some funds and creative control over components of a local nature recovery project they are most interested in ..read more

Last week, Stefan and Richard from Carbon Rewild, and Joe Revans from University of the Arts London (UAL) joined us for a site visit at Maple Farm. They’re all thinking about different ways to improve our engagement with nature restoration projects and we’re excited to collaborate with them at Maple Farm to pilot their projects. All of the photos in this blog were taken by Joe so a huge thanks to him.  Carbon Rewild - Biodiversity Monitoring As part of their social enterprise, Carbon Rewild, Stefan and Richard are developing simple biodiversity monitoring devices for people to use in ..read more

They tower high above our heads with great, sprawling leaves like plants from a long-lost Jurassic rainforest, obscuring our view from the hillside down to the river. In fact, it was precisely these captivating aesthetic qualities which brought these Giant Hogweed plants to our shores in the first place, arriving as an ornamental plant from Central Asia for adorning the botanical gardens of 19th Century plant enthusiasts. From these gardens it escaped, if we can call it that, into the wider landscape thanks to its alarmingly virile nature - single plants can produce between 30,000 and 50,000 s ..read more

On Jan 22nd, Youngwilders and Charity Buddy had our first volunteer planting day at Maple Farm. The day involved 30 people planting 1050 hedgerow whips of hawthorn, blackthorn, crab apple, dogwood, dog rose, field maple, hazel and oak. As these grow, they’ll begin to connect three areas of woodland that are currently separated by a large grazed field, creating corridors that will link up the habitats and provide a major boost for biodiversity on the site.  The planting process was broken down into 8 teams of 3 or 4. After each team was shown the planting process, they got to work, feeling ..read more

This May, on two bright and *very early* mornings, Marc Anderton, senior ecologist at Surrey Wildlife Trust Ecology Services, visited Maple Farm to undertake a breeding bird survey. He was accompanied by ecologists who were there to learn the ropes about what a breeding bird survey entails. Marc very kindly let us join the survey so we could shadow and share what we learnt.   A breeding bird survey is used to monitor the population of the UK’s most common breeding birds. We can use breeding bird surveys to understand the health of an ecosystem as birds are an important indicator. If ..read more

As we embark on rewilding Maple Farm, we’ve set out the results of our first habitat phase 1 and breeding bird survey from this year. Monitoring a site over time for changes in species diversity - or perhaps even the return of a species, such as nesting white storks at Knepp (we can dream!) - will help improve our rewilding strategy and estimate the success of different restoration activities.  A huge thank you to the ecologists at Surrey Wildlife Trust Ecology Services who carried out these surveys for free and used them as a training exercise for their team. We’re hugely grateful for y ..read more

Charity Buddy and Youngwilders are very excited to announce the rewilding of Maple Farm, Charity Buddy’s HQ in Surrey! Since October last year, the land has been left to its own devices while Charity Buddy’s founder Colleen Long consulted with Youngwilders to work out the best way to rewild the plot of land. Working on the early stages of this project during the various covid-19 lockdowns has proved an immense source of inspiration and excitement and through a combination of documentation and collaboration we hope to be able to share this experience and stir these feelings in as many people a ..read more