 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2019) |
Bushcraft is the use and practice of skills to survive and thrive in a natural environment. Bushcraft skills include foraging, hunting, fishing, firecraft, and tying knots. Woodcraft is a subset of bushcraft that focuses on survival skills for use in woodland or forest environments. Fieldcraft is a military or tactical form of bushcraft.
Bushcraft skills provide basic necessities for human life: food (through foraging, tracking, hunting, trapping, fishing), water sourcing and purification, shelter-building, and firecraft. These may be supplemented with expertise in twine-making, knots and lashings, wood-carving, campcraft, medicine/health, natural navigation, and tool and weapon making.
Bushcraft includes skill with tools such as bushcraft knives and axes. A skilled bushcrafter can use these tools to create many different things, from dugout canoes to A-frame shelters.
Purpose-built shelters such as tents are commonly used in the wilderness. Tents can also be improvised from a large tarp or blanket. Indigenous shelters include a snow cave or bark lean-to. Natural shelters include caves, the space underneath a tree, or within thickets. [1]
Knot-tying is an important bushcraft skill. Commonly used knots include the reef knot, figure-8 loop, improved clinch knot, clove hitch, and snare noose. The reef knot is also referred to as a square knot. It is good for bundling items together because one can tension the rope during the first part of the knot tying. Tying bandages together like a sling is a common use. The figure-8 loop forms a loop that will not draw tight. It can be used at the end of a fishing line to tie on a hook or lure. This knot is also useful to hold loads or to lift or drag items. The improved clinch knot is often used to attach a hook to a line or to attach an anchor to a rope, or for tying something to a pole or tree. The clove hitch can be used when creating a raft or to attach a shelter to a tree. It is commonly used to start a lashing, binding one thing to another such as a shelter frame. The snare noose is commonly used to catch animals. The snare consists of a noose attached to an anchor point like a shrub. As the animal moves through the noose, the line will tighten around its neck. [2]
The term bushcraft originally referred to skills used in the Australian bush. The word has been used in its current sense in Australia and South Africa at least as far back as the 1800s. Bush in this sense is probably a direct adoption of the Dutch bosch (now bos), originally used in Dutch colonies for woodland and country covered with natural wood, but extended to usage in British colonies to refer to uncleared or un-farmed districts, still in a state of nature. Later this was used by extension for the country as opposed to the town. In Southern Africa, they get Bushman from the Dutch boschjesman applied by the Dutch colonists to the natives living in the bush. In North America, where there was also considerable colonisation by the Dutch, they have the word bushwacker which is close to the Dutch bosch-wachter (now boswachter) meaning "forest-keeper" or "forest ranger".
Historically, the term has been spotted in the following books (amongst others):
The term was popularized in the Southern Hemisphere by Les Hiddins (the Bush Tucker Man) and in the Northern Hemisphere by Mors Kochanski. It more recently gained currency in the United Kingdom due to the popularity of Ray Mears and his bushcraft and survival television programs. [4]
The word bushcraft was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark by Bushcraft USA LLC on November 12, 2013, as a service mark, for "Providing an on-line forum for bushcraft," and "Providing on-line forums for transmission of messages among computer users concerning bushcraft" (Ser. No. 85690815). This led to some concern about the validity of the mark among Internet users who asserted there were senior uses of the mark in a more general context such as Mors Kochanski as early as 1981, however no formal opposition was ever filed, nor any assertion of continuous use in commerce as the mark related to Internet forums. As of 2021, Bushcraft USA has not publicly enforced its mark against other Internet forums using the term.
The Irish-born Australian writer Richard Graves titled his outdoor manuals "The 10 bushcraft books". [5]
Canadian wilderness instructor Mors Kochanski published the "Northern Bushcraft" book in 1981 and an expanded edition of the book in 1988. He has [6] stated on numerous occasions that book title was an explicit reference to Graves' work. [7]
The term has enjoyed a recent popularity largely thanks to Ray Mears, Cody Lundin, Les Hiddins, Les Stroud, Dave Canterbury and Mors Kochanski and their television programs.
A tinderbox, or patch box, is a container made of wood or metal containing flint, firesteel, and tinder, used together to help kindle a fire. A tinderbox may also contain sulfur-tipped matches.
Major Leslie James Hiddins, known as "The Bush Tucker Man" is a retired Australian Army soldier and war veteran. He is best known for his love and knowledge of the Australian bush, in particular "bush tucker", as featured in the TV series Bush Tucker Man (1988–1996). Hiddins is recognised by his distinctively modified Akubra hat. He has also written several books for children and adults, and in 2019 launched a website that includes a searchable digital database of bush tucker.
The cow hitch, also called the lark's head, is a hitch knot used to attach a rope to an object. The cow hitch comprises a pair of single hitches tied in opposing directions, as compared to the clove hitch in which the single hitches are tied in the same direction. It has several variations and is known under a variety of names. It can be tied either with the end of the rope or with a bight.
Survival skills are techniques used to sustain life in any type of natural environment or built environment. These techniques are meant to provide basic necessities for human life, including water, food, and shelter. Survival skills also support proper knowledge and interactions with animals and plants to promote the sustaining of life over time.
Raymond Paul Mears is a British woodsman, instructor, businessman, author and TV presenter. His TV appearances cover bushcraft and survival techniques.
The Arbor knot is a typical fishers' knot. Its primary use is to attach fishing line to the arbor of a fishing reel.
Mors Kochanski was a Canadian bushcraft and wilderness survival instructor, naturalist, and author. He acquired an international following and instructed for both military and civilians in Canada, the US, the UK and Sweden. He died from peritoneal mesothelioma in 2019.
Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and historically eaten by Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora, fauna, or fungi used for culinary or medicinal purposes, regardless of the continent or culture. Animal native foods include kangaroo, emu, witchetty grubs and crocodile, and plant foods include fruits such as quandong, kutjera, spices such as lemon myrtle and vegetables such as warrigal greens and various native yams.
A mini survival kit contains essential outdoor survival tools and supplies. It is intended to be carried on one's person at all times, be appropriate to all environments, and be a comprehensive kit without being too large. Mini survival kits are intended to provide the basic needs of a survival situation, self-rescue, assistance or a return to normalcy in optimum situations.
The Siberian hitch is a hitch knot used to attach a rope to an object. It is a type of slipped figure-eight noose. The hitch is known for having a tying method suitable even while wearing heavy gloves or mittens in cold climates. As a slipped knot it can be released simply by pulling the working end of the rope.
A loue is an ultra-light Finnish open tent-like shelter. It is used to give reasonable protection from wind and rain during a variety of outdoor activities, including camping, canoeing, hiking and hunting. Loues are popular with Scout groups and minimalist campers. Suitable as one or two person shelters, they are compact, light and can be set up and taken down in a basic way fairly quickly. The workman-like sets shown in photographs indicate that more effort can be made to stiffen the sides and the stakes and lines used can complicate a taut setup. The open front permits fire viewing, ventilation and looking out over a scenic view. A loue consists of a roughly conical section of fabric with the semi-circular bottom edge grounded by stakes and the tip raised with a single pole. Suitable standing tree trunks may be used to suspend the tent if an open campfire is not to be used. This style of ''tarp tent" can best be raised using a scissors-pole assembly. A pole suspension system allows for positioning an open fire in front of the shelter without the risk of damaging tree trunks or roots. The panels of a true Finnish loue are designed to provide a semi-circular short wall around the shelter and a triangular piece at the tip can be let down to provide a little more shelter in front. With suitable siting and careful staking and tensioning, the side walls can be set close to the ground, providing protection from drafts and lifting from winds.
Woodcraft or woodlore is skill and experience in living and thriving in the woods, either on a short- or long-term basis. It includes skills as hunting, fishing, and camping. Traditionally, woodcraft was associated with subsistence lifestyles and hunting-gathering. In modern developed countries it is more commonly associated with outdoor recreation or survivalism. Woodcraft is one form of bushcraft.
Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activities can include fishing, hunting, backpacking, walking and horseback riding — and can be completed individually or collectively. Outdoor recreation is a broad concept that encompasses a varying range of activities and landscapes.
Wild Food Documentary is a documentary television series hosted by Ray Mears. The series airs on the BBC in United Kingdom, it is also shown on Discovery Channel in the United States, Canada, India, Italy, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands and Russia. The show was first broadcast with an episode set in Australia and ended with "Woodland". The theme tune is not unlike the one heard in World of Survival.
Ray Mears Goes Walkabout is a 2008 survival television series hosted by Ray Mears, showing Mears in Australia.
Paul Kirtley is a professional wilderness bushcraft instructor and noted writer on the subjects of bushcraft, wilderness travel and survival.
Andrew Thomas Price is presenter of the ITV Cymru Wales programme Coast & Country. The series began in October 2013.
Bruce Duncan Zawalsky is a professional Canadian outdoorsman, bushcraft instructor, and author. He founded and owns the Boreal Wilderness Institute, based in Edmonton, Alberta. He is the author of A Guide to Canadian Wilderness Survival, published by Liard Books in 2017. Zawalsky guided his first backpacking group in the Rocky Mountains in 1981. In 1989, as part of a small six-person group in three canoes, he completed a 92-day 3,600 km canoe expedition between Rocky Mountain House, Alberta and Thunder Bay, Ontario. The expedition involved over sixty portages and 200 km of upstream river paddling, lining, and poling, and was conducted as the completion of an Outdoor Education training program at the University of Alberta. Zawalsky studied with bushcraft expert Mors Kochanski and at Augustana University College, PADI College, the Nordic Ski Institute, and in the Canadian military. He has been a member of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment for more than 34 years.
Camping and Woodcraft is an American classic published by Horace Kephart in 1916, detailing the practical skill-sets needed to endure the harsh conditions of the wilderness, and to make that experience more enjoyable to the amateur outdoorsman. The work is a revised and expanded edition of Kephart's 1906 Camping and Woodcraft, a pocket-manual published by the author with the expressed purpose of rendering practical advice and skills to those who travel with minimal gear in places where there are no roads. The 1906 printing of the pocket-manual passed through 7 editions in the space of ten years.
The dictionary definition of bushcraft at Wiktionary
Media related to Bushcraft at Wikimedia Commons| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
