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Friday 28 November 2014

Bushcraft and the Law; Stealth Camping

Stealth fighter
The F-117 'Stealth Fighter' (By Jon Sullivan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons) but should we be adopting stealth tactics when we are camping and bushcrafting?

The phrase 'wild camping' is normally used to describe camping away from an established camp site, where you might have no access to running water or wash facilities. Most often associated with moorlands and uplands us bushcrafters seek something slightly different from the normal 'wild camp' as we are not only looking for a remote area to camp but somewhere we can collect fire wood, have a fire, and whittle. 

My 'Wild Camp' in the Southern Alps of New Zealand in 2005.

So are there bushcraft friendly 'Wild Camping' areas?

Unfortunately these are few and far between, even to wild camp in upland areas you need the landowners permission unless there is a by-law which grants permission to camp, such as on Dartomoor where wild camping is permitted given certain rules are taken into account. No camping on farm land, on enclosed areas of the moor or on sites of archaeological interest etc... (Dartmoor national Park http://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/visiting/vi-enjoyingdartmoor/camping

But even where this permission is granted that doesn't give you a right to have fires, cut wood or do other bushcraft tasks. What you need is specific permission from a landowner to carry out the activities that you have in mind. Permission to erect brushwood shelters, have fires, carry knives and axes, shoot or trap rabbits etc.. 

A partly completed brush shelter, building these structures can denude woodlands of important dead wood habitats for invertebrates and if left intact can give bushcrafters a bad name. 
The problem with stealth camping tactics, and I can understand the frustration with not being able to find a suitable place to practice your hobby, is that it gives other bushcrafters a bad name. Accessing land without permission, lighting fires etc.. can disrupt the work of gamekeepers and other people who work on the land, and however stealthy you are; ultimately you are trespassing.   

We may feel that we have a moral right to access the countryside for recreation but unfortunately the law does not always allow this, although we do benefit from much more lenient access laws than have traditionally been imposed in this country we still don't have the right to unlimited access to the woodland areas we might like to bushcraft in. 

I can't say with honesty that I have never camped anywhere I didn't have permission to be but I haven't recently and I intend to keep it that way. As a gamekeeper and deer stalker by training I recognise the disruption that can be caused by people accessing land without permission and luckily I currently have access to plenty of areas  to practice my bushcrafting but there have been times when all I've had to practice in is my own garden which never seems enough.

There is a lot to be said for garden bushcrafting, I lit my first friction fire in the garden, and my son learned to use a knife in the garden. This picture, taken a few years ago shows him starting on his first ever whittling project. 

My advice would be to seek the permission of a local farmer who has pockets of unmanaged woodland on his land, maybe get involved in beating on a local pheasant shoot and ask the keeper if you might be able to use an out of the way corner for some bushcraft practice but please don't trespass and when you do find a place to practice always follow the country code






Friday 14 November 2014

The Strawberry Tree; Foragers Diary

The strawberry tree Arbutus unedo is an unusuall plant, also known as the cane apple it is native to Western Europe and the Meditaranian, some parts of France and, strangely enough, Southwest and Northwest Ireland.  It is not native to England or Wales but is occasionaly cutlivated.

There just happens to be one growing in along the roadside on my walk to to work which has yielded quite a lot of delicious fruit recently.
The unripe fruit of the strawberry tree and it's white bell shaped flowers.

Birch bark and strawberry tree fruit all collected on the way back from a walk to the corner shop.



A bowl full of the ripe fruit
 The fruit is delicious on it's own althought the rough skin gives it a bit of a strange, gritty texture and is hard to remove without completely squashing the fruit.

Taditionaly used as a plant for bees the fruit is also used for jams and beverages but I'm yet to experiement with any recipies.

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Hearth Boards, Bearing Blocks, Drills, Bows and Strings

The basic materials for bow drill fire lighting can all be gathered from the woods and hedges of the UK without any difficulty, with a knife and saw they can then be relatively simply turned into the four main components we need;

A bow, ideally slightly curved, inflexible and strong.

A hearth, choose one of the suitable woods I wrote about in 'Bow Drill Trouble Shooting' which are also explained in my recent post 'Selecting the right wood for friction fire lighting'.

A drill, the easiest thing is to take this from the same wood as the hearth but circumstances or the lack of appropriate sized material may demand that they are made out of different pieces and even different species of wood.

A bearing block, something we can hold in our hand to apply pressure to to the drill as we spin it.

There are two additional items in this picture though?

One is an ember pan, this can really be made out of anything, I often use a leaf or a small piece of bark, but making one out of wood is quite convenient as it wont flex under the pressure of the hearth being pushed onto it, making it easier not to spill or squash a fragile ember. The other though is a string, a vital part of the bow drill firelighting kit.



Yes we can rely on carrying a man made string with us such as the one in this picture made out of climbing accessory cord but how about going a step further and making one from wild materials.

Some of the natural material options for bow drill cords. 

Lime bast

Cordage from elm bast.

Fibres from horseradish leaves.

As great as these materials are though, they are not always reliable. Lime bast takes weeks to process, elm is fairly uncommon and the place you are most likely to see horseradish is along roadsides. Also the cord you make from these fibres is often fairly brittle and has none of the forgiving flexibility that modern synthetic cord does. Yes they can be used to make cord strong enough for bow drill friction fire lighting but for a more reliable natural material how about rawhide;

A plaited rawhide bow string. 

 The rawhide will have a certain degree of elasticity so it will not break as easily as the more brittle plant fibre strings but you will need to stretch the string before using it as it other wise it will continue to stretch as you drill and will loosen as it stretches.

The rawhide string is more than strong enough for repeated uses on a bow for friction fire lighting.

You can even tie knots in it, although it will be slightly bulky. 

A bow with rawhide string and all the other paraphernalia of friction fire lighting.


 If you are interested in making or using rawhide I will be publishing a blog post in the next few weeks on how to make rawhide using a Chinese water deer skin.

Monday 10 November 2014

Shaggy InkCaps; Foragers Diary

Perhaps not the most obvious edible mushroom as it decays into a black inky mess over time but actually delicious if harvested when young enough.

A group of particularly large shaggy incaps. make sure you are selctive when harvesting the taller one in the centre of the picture has already started to decay.


These are more like it, the smaller ones which still have pure white gills are the ones you want, don't bother with the others even if they have only just started to turn. 

This is what they eventualy tourn into if left, make sure you always leave some, you shouldnt be harvesting all the mushrooms you find you should always leave some.

Washed, cut and ready for the frying pan

Thursday 6 November 2014

Working with land-based industries to increase outdoor engagement with nature.

From the 17th-18th October the Institute for Outdoor Learning held it’s bi-annual national conference for outdoor educators and practitioners. 

It took place this year at the Holywell conference centre in Loughborough. The conference included key note addresses from Dr John Ashton CBE; Director of the Faculty of Public Health and from Lofty Wiseman; Author of the SAS Survival Handbook. It also included workshops and master classes delivered by experienced outdoor educators and professionals.

I delivered on of these workshops on the topic of: Working with land-based industries to increase outdoor engagement with nature.

In the workshop the overlap between the two sectors of outdoor education and land-based studies was discussed and the fact that students in either subject area seem to cite ‘being outdoors’ as a key motivation in choosing the topic they study was raised as a potential area of common ground in what can sometimes be a strained relationship between two industries which share the same outdoor space.



Delegates who took part in this workshop produced the above diagram illustrating the areas where the opinions and motivations of people in the two industries diverge but also where there is common ground, including highlighting programmes such as the John Muir award which effectively link the two subject areas.
As part of this workshop I also shared the results of some research carried out at Reaseheath College to gather opinions of countryside and game management students compared to the opinions of adventure sports students on a range of topics related to outdoor activities. This survey involved students expressing their thoughts and opinions of a number of different activities which take place out of doors, ranging from deer stalking, to kayaking and mountain biking. Over 100 responses were gathered and the following conclusions were drawn;
  1.     Although all students surveyed had an interest in the outdoors the activities they preferred differed vastly (which was to be expected based on their choice of course at the college)
  2.          Some of the opinions expressed were negative towards those activities which were not considered part of ‘their’ industry.




 The word cloud above demonstrates the frequency of the words used by adventure sports students to describe the land-based and outdoor activities they saw pictures of (for those pictures and to take part in the survey yourself use the following link



Likewise this word cloud shows the frequency of words used by countryside/game management students in describing the same pictures.

It is clear that the students held different aspects of the environment they work in as more, or most, important, with the countryside students focusing on the need to maintain the environment and a concern over unauthorised access while the adventure sports students were more concerned about access to areas for recreation, the inconvenience and disappointment of limited access and some very specific potential environmental impacts.

3.        Thirdly the percentage of students who were opposed to the fieldsport elements of       outdoor activities (shooting, fishing, deer stalking etc..) was very small. In fact              there was considerable support for these activities from most people with the caveat      that all animals killed in the name of field sports were then used appropriately (ie;       eaten). So this area, which had the potential to be the biggest conflict between                students, was actually not a major issue, the biggest area of conflict was actually the      discussion over where access was and wasn’t permitted.


The workshop concluded with delegates sharing how they reconcile and link these two distinct sectors working in the outdoors.  

Wednesday 5 November 2014

Venison and Mushrooms; Foragers Diary

As Chinese water deer season started on the first of November I thought it would be appropriate to share some ideas for  preparing and cooking some venison with other foraged ingredients.
  
A Chinese water deer doe hanging from an apple tree ready for jointing. It was gralloched (gutted) just after it was shot and has been hung for two days.  

removing the best cuts; the 'backstraps'


A group of common puffballs.

Slicedand ready for the frying pan


Medalions of Chinese water deer bakstrap frying in butter.

Monday 3 November 2014

Shooting and Recreation in Upland Areas

This article appeared in the September 2013 issue of The Professional Mountaineer Magazine and was one of three articles of mine published there on the topic of access and the potential conflicts and common grounds between the outdoor education/adventure sports industries and the countryside management (in particular gamekeeping and deer stalking) sector.


Having been involved in both outdoor education and countryside management for quite a while I can't help thinking that perhaps there is more common ground than we think and one activity springs to mind that seems to sit somewhere on the periphery of both industries; can you guess what that activity is?  

That's right it's Bushcraft, it includes many of the skills used by countryside managers in various roles, whether it's woodland management, handling game etc.. but also can be used very effectively to meet the outcomes of outdoor education such as improved self esteem, confidence etc.. 

Bushcraft has a lot going for it not just as a recreational activity but as a tool both of the outdoor educator and as a way of prolonging and preserving the traditional skills of countryside management. 




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