Cumbria Wildlife Trust and the Cumbria Innovative Flood Resilience project have launched a new series of Creature Comforts-style animations, showcasing how natural flood management (NFM) can protect communities from flooding, enhance biodiversity, and combat climate change.

Developed in collaboration with the Environment Agency (EA), Westmorland and Furness Council, Royal Society Protection of Birds (RSPB), National Farmers Union (NFU), Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), and the National Trust, and funded by the EA, these captivating short films demonstrate how working with nature can reduce flood risks, improve water quality, and build climate resilience for homes, businesses, and farms across the region.

These captivating films, narrated by a cast of woodland creatures, illustrate how practical measures can protect homes, farms, and businesses while supporting biodiversity. Twiggy the Red Squirrel, Milligan the Hedgehog, Pat the Cow, and Gill and Isla the Salmon take viewers on an educational journey through the methods and benefits of NFM, from improving soil absorption to removing obsolete weirs and dams.

Natural Flood Management (NFM) is a catch-all term for a variety of landscaping techniques used to hold water back during flood events, which reduce the impact downstream on communities and infrastructure such as bridges.

The four characters are narrated by Cumbria ‘local voices’, including Adam Briggs from the National Farmers Union, Annabel Rushton from Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Rachel Oakley from the National Trust, Catherine Evans from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and additional voices Environment Agency, United Utilities and Cumbria Volunteer Service.

• Wood you believe it (2024) dir. Cadi Catlow (3:45) Twiggy the Red Squirrel, talks to us about the huge benefit trees provide not just in reducing the impacts of heavy rain and flooding, but also in combating the effects of climate change, and creating cool spaces during times of high temperatures as well as the myriad of species that they support.
• Home & dry (2024) dir. Cadi Catlow (5:06) Milligan the Hedgehog explains how we can alter our gardens and homes to limit the impacts that storms can have in communities and that these actions not only reduce our flood risk but also improve water quality and make our gardens richer in wildlife.
• It doesn’t have to cost the earth (2024) dir. Cadi Catlow (3:44) Pat the cow talks about how changes in farming practice can make big differences to flooding whilst at the same time improving farms’ resilience to flood and drought. Whilst also protecting one of the farms most valuable assets the soil, helping combat climate change.
• Dam fine ideas (2024) dir. Cadi Catlow (4:15) Gill and Isla the Salmon, give us their view of how old weirs and dams heavily compromise their ability to migrate up our rivers and how removing these structures reduces the risk flooding, enhances the biodiversity and helps our rivers to become more natural.

Watch the films here

The techniques explored in these films include improving soils' ability to absorb water, so it is less likely to run off into rivers; removing old and dangerous weirs and dams, the benefits of trees and their ability to reduce the impacts of rain even in large storms, and what people can do to their own homes and gardens to reduce their impacts.

The ‘stop-motion’ animated films have been produced this year as a sequel to the original award-winning films from 2022 and are the result of an exciting collaboration between Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Cumbria Innovative Flood Resilience project, funded by the Environment Agency’s £200m Flood and Coastal Innovation Program:

Andrew Eden, EA FCIP Programme Executive, said: “It’s fantastic to see these films become a reality, and raise awareness of the power of natural flood management to soak up water, slow the flow and reduce flood risk. It’s just a small part of our Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme, which is looking at cutting-edge approaches to improve communities’ resilience and help them to adapt.”

Cadi Catlow, Director, said: “Making this film was an absolute joy for me because it combined two of my personal passions - wildlife and research! Twiggy was built as a lifesize, anatomically correct puppet with a huge amount of attention to detail, right down to the number of toes on each foot, though her face was gently worked into a slightly cartoonish direction around the eyes and mouth to help with the animation. Her cheerful, expressive voice actually belongs to a real expert working in the field, and the character animator used this as a great foundation for adding bags of extra personality through physical performance.

“This film is one of four we shot on Bristol harborside, using a small crew of fabulous people, all committed to sharing the important information around flooding, climate and protecting our natural habitats for future generations. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!”

David Harpley, Head of Conservation for Cumbria Wildlife Trust, said: “Cumbria Wildlife Trust works with local landowners and farmers to make Cumbria’s landscape more resilient to the impacts of the climate crisis, such as flooding and drought. Many of the techniques explained in the animations have been used in Cumbria. Restoration of peatland at Tebay Common included the installation of letterbox dams to slow the flow of water, and leaky dams have been installed above a housing estate in Kendal to reduce the impact during a flood event”.

David Kennedy, from the Environment Agency (who wrote the films and is the voice of Russell the dog and Gregory the Woodpecker), said: “These films illustrate just how many benefits there are of working with our landscape and nature, not only to reduce the devastating impacts of flooding, but also to enhance our water quality and improve our country’s biodiversity. At the same time, we can lock up carbon and reduce the impacts of climate change – talk about a win-win.”

The Environment Agency know the devastating impact that flooding can have, which is why protecting people and communities is our top priority. We encourage everyone to sign up for flood warnings here or by calling Flood line on 0345 988 1188.