to cut a long story short today I was asked by the people I work with if it would be possible to teach a bushcraft course in the woods we currently work in after a meeting with the funders and partner organisations today where we decided to have lunch in the woods and I ended up teaching them how to light fires with flint and steel.
the question I want to ask is what kind of skills would be good to teach beginners (of various ages and abilities), I know firelighting and shelter building would be a good start, though teh site we currently work on is within a SSSI (site of special scientific intrest) due to rare geology and flora so anything we do would have to be minimal impact and if possible reversable (such as shelters would probably have to be taken down at the end of an exercise)
but the list I currently have in my head include:-
firelighting
shelter building
string making
bowl making (and other such things)
knot tying (possibly)
finding and purifying water (possibly)
I'm kind of reluctant to include things such as trap building and the likes as I'm not 100% on the laws regarding trapping and fishing by means other than a rod and reel so even though it's a useful survival skill it's not something I think would probably be approprate for people who are only going to use the skills while walking in the mountains or during a weekend of camping.
so any other suggestions? (even for skills I'm not 100% on I have a few of people to draw from including atleast 2 other people with bushcrafting experience and our group's plant expert for plant identification)
the question I want to ask is what kind of skills would be good to teach beginners (of various ages and abilities), I know firelighting and shelter building would be a good start, though teh site we currently work on is within a SSSI (site of special scientific intrest) due to rare geology and flora so anything we do would have to be minimal impact and if possible reversable (such as shelters would probably have to be taken down at the end of an exercise)
but the list I currently have in my head include:-
firelighting
shelter building
string making
bowl making (and other such things)
knot tying (possibly)
finding and purifying water (possibly)
I'm kind of reluctant to include things such as trap building and the likes as I'm not 100% on the laws regarding trapping and fishing by means other than a rod and reel so even though it's a useful survival skill it's not something I think would probably be approprate for people who are only going to use the skills while walking in the mountains or during a weekend of camping.
so any other suggestions? (even for skills I'm not 100% on I have a few of people to draw from including atleast 2 other people with bushcrafting experience and our group's plant expert for plant identification)