Resonance: Radical acts of care for resilient landscapes and communities

The UK has committed to legally binding goals for restoring nature and achieving net zero, and the way we use land will determine whether those ambitions are met. Drawing on their involvement with the UK’s Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People (LUNZ) Hub, Cumbria‑based artists Harriet Fraser and Rob Fraser have created Resonance — a long‑term artistic intervention that invites people to think differently about land, time and responsibility.

Resonance is conceived as a century‑long artwork: seven rings of seven silver birch trees, each planted along one of seven radiating lines from the centre of the Lake District National Park. Between 2024 and 2026, 49 birch trees were gathered and replanted with the help of more than 130 participants.

Described as a radical act of care, the project began with the careful removal of young birch trees from a peatland undergoing restoration. Those same trees were then replanted across seven locations in the National Park, forming seven circles that will grow and change over the next hundred years. Each planting day became a moment of shared work and shared thinking – practical involvement, conversations rooted in place, and wider reflections on how land is valued, restored and used. The LUNZ Hub’s Resonance “Big Tent” gathering at the University of Cumbria’s Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas in March 2025 broadened these discussions even further.

This upcoming webinar will feature the first screening of the Resonance film, followed by a panel conversation exploring what “radical care” might mean as the UK reshapes its land use systems.

The event will be chaired by Harriet Fraser from the PLACE collective, alongside our four panellists:

• Mike Innerdale, Regional Director, north of England, National Trust
• Georgie Barber, FFCC Countryside and Land Use lead (and UK lead in the LUNZ Hub)
• Anita Lazurko, Senior Transdisciplinary Scientist, UKCEH
• Harley Stoddart, Head of Climate Mitigation Science, Defra

We’ll consider questions such as:

• Are radical acts necessarily disruptive, or can they be about noticing and protecting what already matters?
• Where are the overlooked opportunities for care in land management?
• Who participates in these acts, and how does care operate from the scale of a single field or peat bog to that of a nation?
• What unique perspectives can artistic practice bring to these debates?