university of cumbria – the PLACE Collective

How can it take twenty people to plant seven trees? That’s a fair question, an out-loud wondering from one of the participants joining the group to plant a Resonance circle in the Langstrath Valley. And it kind of gets to the point – the act of planting a Resonance circle is not about function, speed or efficiency, but about taking time, and about connection.

A group of people on a hillside in sunshine. They are standing in a circle around newly planted trees — _{Planting a Resonance circle in the Langstrath Valley}

The seven trees planted on the fellside in the Langstrath valley where the last seven to go in during the year’s planting season – just enough time to get the trees into the ground before they woke from their winter slumber and began to open their leaves. Around the country, people have been planting trees maybe hundreds or thousands at a time, but for the Resonance circles, there are just seven trees. Each circle is planted with the same precise measurements: a diameter of 3.5 metres, with the seven trees set around the circumference of the circle in an equal spacing, angled 51.4 degrees from the centre.

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Simon Carr talks to Harriet Fraser about monitoring greenhouse gases at Bolton Fell Moss .. carbon, climate and the living, breathing bog

The bog is wide and grey, the rain is slashing down, and we’re all dressed in wellies and full waterproofs. We have umbrellas too – useful to protect camera equipment, and give a little shelter to Simon and Jack as they bend down and get busy with their tools to measure emissions of carbon dioxide and methane. Understanding how much of these gases the bog is emitting, and how more is held over time, is a critical part of the restoration work.

Two men in raincoats stand on a wet bog and look at the camera; the man on the left holds a white object, which is a monitor he will use to measure carbon dioxide and methane emissions

A metal probe with a white base, held in someone's hands

In this recording, Simon reflects on the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, introduces the carbon flux monitor, and explains what he hopes to learn from monitoring the bog. Every month, he and Jack visit ten monitoring sites spread across this vast bog; and they walk 10km in the process. The white carbon flux monitor, which is aesthetically beautiful and almost personal, is continually taking in gases, and periodically it lets out a ‘burp’, which you can hear on the recording.