Radical acts of care: for resilient landscapes and communities
The UK is set on a course to reach legally binding targets for nature recovery and for ‘net zero’. What happens in the land use sector is a significant part of this. Taking inspiration from their work within the UK’s Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People (LUNZ) Hub, Cumbria artists Harriet Fraser and Rob Fraser set up the Resonance project.
Resonance is a living 100-year artwork: seven circles of seven silver birch trees located on seven lines radiating from the centre of the Lake District National Park. The birch trees were collected and planted between 2024 and 2026, with more than 130 people involved.
Resonance has been described as a radical act of care: first the removal of 49 birch trees from a peat bog in the process of restoration, and then the planting of these trees in seven circles, each of seven trees, in seven sites across the Lake District National Park.
Each event has been an occasion for collective endeavour: hands-on involvement, site specific conversations, and discussions about land use more broadly, bringing people together from different specialisms. The LUNZ Hub Resonance 'Big Tent' at the Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas, University of Cumbria, in March 2025, expanded the conversations further.
This event will premiere the Resonance film, followed by a panel discussion delving into what radical acts of care may look like as the UK transitions its land use structure and practices, and as people work collectively to nurture the land and ourselves.
Are radical acts disruptive? Might they involve recognising and nurturing what’s precious? What are the hidden or missed opportunities? Who is involved, and how does care manifest across different scales – from a field, or peat bog, to a country? And what can artistic interventions offer as part of this conversation?
Please note: The views of our speakers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society.
Note on captions
The Society aims to provide automatically-generated captions for all event recordings. The captions appear as text at the bottom of the video which you can toggle on and off.
The accuracy of automatically-generated captions varies depending on the audio quality, any specialist language used and the speaker. They are therefore are unlikely to be 100% accurate and the Society does not edit or correct automatically-generated captions.
This event has been organised by the North West (Cumbria and Lancashire) regional committee with the UK LUNZ Hub.
About the speakers
The panel will be chaired by Harriet Fraser, co-creator of Resonance, with the following panellists:
- Georgie Barber, Countryside and Land Use Lead, Food, Farming and Countryside Commission
- Mike Innerdale, Regional Director, North of England, National Trust
- Anita Lazurko, Senior Transdisciplinary Scientist and Scenario Developer at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)
- Harley Stoddart, Head of Climate Mitigation Science, Defra
About Resonance
Resonance is a richly collaborative project and has been made possible thanks to many individuals and organisations.
Our thanks go to the LUNZ Hub, Natural England, National Trust, Lake District National Park Authority, Forestry England, University of Cumbria, Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas, Friends of the Lake District, Muncaster Castle estate, and to all the farmers, commoners, and volunteers who have joined along the way.
Creative outputs have been developed with filmmakers, illustrators and a musician from the PLACE Collective.
The LUNZ Hub is a consortium of 30+ organisations from the four UK nations. Its objective is to equip UK policymakers, industry, civil society and communities with the evidence they need to drive transformational change in land use.
It is part of the Transforming Land Use for Net zero, Nature and People (LUNZ) programme co-funded by UKRI, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (on behalf of England and Wales), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs of Northern Ireland, and the Scottish Government.
Three Stripes South - Bex Band
Three Stripes South tells Bex's transformative adventure - battling heat, exhaustion, self-doubt and prejudice - and the new life she built for herself when she got home, founding the Love Her Wild women's adventure community.
Where is everyone? The importance and challenges of mapping human populations
Accurate maps of population distributions are vital for effective governance, but can often be lacking. How can we use new geospatial technologies to address this?
The travel photographer’s way - Nori Jemil
Award-winning photographer Nori Jemil’s discusses her ground-breaking photography book. She focuses on travel imagery, from people and landscape to architecture and adventure.