There’s something afoot in the woods today. Bubble-headed humanoid figures bump clumsily through the trees, making their way down to the water’s edge accompanied by flute and drum. Here comes Frog, with bulgy red eyes, followed by stripe-faced Badger and a slim figure with a massive salmon on her head. I wanted to be Otter, but Otter is taken, so I end up as Barn Owl.

All around us, wild garlic bursts through the leaf litter, like clean green licks of paint, and every passing bootprint sends a pungent plume into the air. Blackbird song and the glockenspiel gurgle of the playful young River Tone provide the soundtrack to this morning’s ceremonials, and behind our papier-mache masks we’re all a little overexcited.

Responding to the call put out by Extinction Rebellion to mark World Water Day on 22 March, the artistsformallyknownasWiveyXR – creative people from nearby Wiveliscombe – decided to pledge their allegiance to the Tone at Hurstone nature reserve, close to the village of Waterrow on the edge of Exmoor national park.

Anita Roy in her papier-mache owl mask. Photograph: @artistsformallyknownaswiveyxr

The idea was inspired by a young Bristol-based activist called Megan who married her local river, the Avon, in 2023. Campaigns like those of Surfers Against Sewage, the recent TV series Dirty Business, films such as Jo in the Water and Rave on for the Avon, and books such as Robert Macfarlane’s Is a River Alive? and Amy-Jane Beer’s The Flow have galvanised people into action. Today’s nuptials are held in the same spirit, because, for all the fancy dress, everyone knows this is a serious business: of the 3,553 river stretches in England assessed by the Rivers Trust, 0% – that is none – were in good overall status.

Here, just seven miles from its source, the Tone is sparkling and clear – a very different river than the sluggish, coffee-brown waterway that snakes through Taunton and beyond. We cheer and whoop as Eileen, our salmon, takes to the water paddling downstream on her hands and knees. She commits to “love and honour” the Tone and protect it “in sickness and in health”. Something stirs inside our animal hearts. Just maybe, the tide is turning.