Finding our Flow
Welcome to Youth Panel: extracts from a blog by panel member Annabelle
West Cumbria Rivers Trust’s Youth Panel is a group of young people from west Cumbria who are passionate about nature, love the outdoors, and enjoy doing something sociable at the weekend. We meet regularly for volunteering, creative activities, bushcraft, and a chat around the campfire.
On our first meet we did kick sampling in the River Keekle and explored Walkmill Community Woodland, getting to know the landscape. We made s’mores and popcorn on the fire (delicious!) and learned about the history of the site from Jodie Mills, the Trust’s Director.
Anne Waggot Knott, the artist we’re working with, came along too. Together we’re developing some creative projects to raise awareness of the site, its biodiversity, and its value to the community. It’s a hidden gem.
It’s hard to imagine now that Walkmill Community Woodland was once a coal mine. After the mine closed the mineshafts were filled in and the land was bought by the Council. They planted lots of trees, hence the forest we see today.
A few years ago the Council was planning to sell the land, so the Parish Council and the Trust stepped in to make sure it was kept as woodland that the public can use.
The Trust runs forest schools for local children and undertook a big project to restore the river Keekle in places. The local community are extremely active too – they really care about it.
Annabelle Brett, 2023
New Youth Panel members are always welcome... hit the info button to get in touch.
You can also email jodie@westcumbriariverstrust.org
Read on to see more of our projects and ideas.
Foraging and sun printing
Recording our landscape using cyanotypes
Cyanotype is a traditional photography process, exposing items on a light-sensitive surface leaving an impression of their shape. Often known as blueprints due to their colour, they were historically used by botanists to keep accurate records.
We set off foraging for leaves, grasses and flowers, taking care to collect sparingly and sensitively. Creating pictorial compositions from our finds helped us to identify and understand each plant’s features and adaptations.
We securely clamped our leaves to the light-sensitive paper. Next we played a waiting game, letting the UV rays do their work and slowly expose the images.
Despite a good old Cumbrian summer day with 100% cloud cover, we produced some glorious cyanotypes on watercolour paper. We also experimented with the process on recycled denim, with beautiful but much more unpredictable results.
Wildlife tracking with charcoal ink
Our creative collaboration... with slugs
This project involved letting nature create the art. We wanted to know which mammals were using Walkmill Community Woodland. They’re hard to spot during the day so we decided to make a humane tracking trap.
We designed and built a housing from recycled cardboard and baited it with dogfood, aiming to attract squirrels and foxes overnight.
By using crushed charcoal to make a natural, non-toxic ink, we hoped they would walk into the trap, across the ink, then out over the white paper. We would then be able to identify them from the charcoal footprints they left.
We were excited to check the trap the next morning, and there had certainly been plenty of activity...
After inspecting the charcoal trails, we concluded that sadly all we had caught were slugs and possibly some insects.
Despite these being our only visitors, we learned a lot from the process. Next time we’ll try to leave the trap longer than a couple of nights which should increase our chances of finding mammal tracks.
Soil chromatography
Exploring the earth beneath us
Understanding the makeup of our soil is key to determining what will grow. Soil chromatography is a basic, straightforward way to see what’s in our soil. It also produces beautiful, radial artworks.
It's a useful process for farmers and growers in places where they may not have access to advanced scientific or digital analysis tools. It’s also purely visual, which makes it great for us to examine the soils at Walkmill Community Woodland.
We collected soil samples and recorded the locations. These varied from specific trees to clearings, the riverbank and even our fire pit.
After sieving and grinding the soil, we added distilled water to create a solution. We then wicked the solution up onto pre-treated filter paper, letting it spread out in its own time.
The organic material, minerals and microbial activity are separated as the solution spreads across the paper.
In very basic terms, the darker, more irregular and spiker the shape, the healthier the soil.
We need to repeat this, fine tuning the process and spending more time understanding our results. But we all agree the chromatographs are beautiful. It was a great way to build a deeper connection with the land.
Despite being a post-industrial landscape, we hope the soil will become richer over time as the natural environment recovers.
Kick sampling and lino printing
Monitoring biodiversity in the River Keekle
Kick sampling is a great way to check the biodiversity of a watercourse. We held a fine-meshed fishing net in the water and gently disturbed the gravel with our feet, encouraging the wildlife on the riverbed to enter the net.
We found a wide variety of species including mayfly nymphs, brown trout, minnows and stone loach. This diversity shows that the river is a relatively healthy ecosystem. Hopefully these species thrive, and we should find even more in the future.
We made sketches of some of our finds. Drawing these tiny animals on a much larger scale helped us look closely and carefully at each species. This helped us tell them apart and understand the adaptations that help them flourish in this environment.
From our sketches we carefully carved lino blocks and hand printed them using a printing press. The beauty of printmaking is that we can make lots of copies very quickly.
Experimental photography
Abstract nature photography using our smartphones
During our early visits to Walkmill Community Woodland, we explored the shapes and colours in the landscape using our phone cameras. By moving slowly and looking closely, framing our shots, we noticed so much more than we would on a normal walk.
By playing with the editing settings on our phones, we could bring out details that we might not otherwise spot.
INTO THE WOODS
Our pop-up exhibition in Walkmill Community Woodland (January 2024)
We really enjoyed curating and presenting our work in the woodland. The weather was kind to us and over 70 people showed up, including ITV.
It was incredibly satisfying to see all our work together, telling the story of the biodiversity in the river and the woods.
Having the campfire with popcorn and marshmallows gave everyone a good flavour of our Youth Panel meetings.
Wouldn't it be great if all art exhibitions had hot chocolate and hammocks to relax in?!
Huge thanks to all our intrepid visitors.
And here we are on ITV Border News.
Created by artist and geographer Anne Waggot Knott for West Cumbria Rivers Trust.
Photography by Anne Waggot Knott, Tom Kay Photographic and panel members.
Project supported by Cumbria Community Foundation, Cumbria Youth Alliance and the National Trust Riverlands Project.