A Helping Hand to Ånderdalen National Park 2025: a photo reportage

Delphin Ruché
May 13
2 min read

Photographer Ann Cools joined the team of volunteers for the 2025 edition of A Helping Hand to Ånderdalen National Park, Senja. In this article, she shares a selection of moments captured through her lens. Enjoy!

A volunteer enjoys the view of Ånderdalen National Park during 2025 edition of the Helping Hand with Rissa Citizen Science.

Ingve Birkeland, manager of Ånderdalen National Park, explains the challenges the park faces.

Building boardwalks

These wooden planks make it easier for hikers to cross wet areas, and they protect the soil and vegetation.

Volunteers and rangers collaborate to place the boardwalk in a stable position.

Park rangers in Ånderdalen National Park cut a boardwalk during the Helping Hand project with rissa Citizen Science.

Park rangers cut a boardwalk into the required size.

A volunteer during the Helping Hand project in Ånderdalen National Park with Rissa Citizen Science.

It’s a team effort.

Ånderdalen National Park welcomes more than twenty thousand visitors each year.

Repainting the DNT Senja trail

The red marks help hikers stay on the Senja trail. The marks make hiking safer, especially when visibility drops, and they tend to concentrate the negative impacts of trampling, and disturbance to wildlife along the path. The marks need painting every five years or so.

The markings of a DNT trail get a fresh lick of paint.

Volunteers appear tiny in the vast landscape.

The volunteers of the 2025 edition of A Helping Hand to Ånderdalen National Park with Rissa Citizen Science.

To restore nature is so much fun!

Repairing hiking trails

The number of visitors in Ånderdalen National Park rose from 2,000 to almost 20,000 in the last ten years. In some places, this popularity creates lots of damage. Hiking trails need maintenance.

Volunteers during the Helping Hand project in Ånderdalen National Park with Rissa Citizen Science.

While some cut the coconut fiber mat into pieces…

…others put them into place.

New wood chips are spread out along an existing trail.

A footprint from a previous year, but still clearly visible in the peat.

Ånderdalen National Park during the 2025 edition of A Helping Hand.

Ånderdalen National Park hosts an abundance of life.

Closing a path damaged beyond repair, and creating a new one

When a hiking trail is damaged beyond repair, it needs to be closed off, to give nature time to recover. And a new trail needs to be created, preferably in dry areas, a bit less susceptible to erosion.

Boardwalks help protect the vegetation and soil.

Important reminder for visitors.

Volunteers are scouting for the best places to place trail markers.

Natural elements are used to assist visitors in following the right path.

New trail markers help hikers stay on the correct path.

New trails are created in less vulnerable parts of the national park.

The volunteers brainstorming on nature restoration.

Ann Cools is a photographer based in Belgium. Her work moves between documentary and poetic reflection, often centred around the intricate bond of humanity and nature. In addition to joining the Helping Hand in 2025, she regularly covered Rissa's efforts to restore kelp forests in Tromsø and Øksfjord.

Visit anncools.com to see more of her work.

A Helping Hand to Senja 2025 was a collaboration beetween Rissa Citizen Science and Ånderdalen National Park Board. The 2025 edition was supported by Tromsø Fylkeskommune, Miljødirektoratet, Senja kommune and Statskog. In 2026, Senja Municipality and Visit Senja Region are joining as partners with the addition of a second site (Fjordgård/Segla).