I've been heavily promoting the concept of bushcraft up here in the north east among woodland and forest ranger from various local authorities in the past few months. I was demonstrating woodcraft skills recently at the Chopwell forest festival and got chatting to Sam, a ranger from Castle Morpeth Borough Council.
She was very interested in having bushcraft skills practiced in the woods she looks after. We talked for a while and established what she was hoping would come out of it. Basically she is constantly on the lookout for volunteers to help out in the woods, clearing brush and tydying up the undergrowth, as well as removing every sycamore in the woods as they are not a native hardwood and are starving the native trees of light and nutrients. They all have to come out eventually.
So I said I would put the idea to you guys and gals. The deal will go something like we did down at Chedworth earlier this year. Half a day doing some woodland voluntary work and half a day doing our own thing. Basically it's what we like doing anyway so it's hardly going to be a hardship.
I'll most probably be working the woods on my own at other times, felling unwanted trees and such so nobody from here would be expected to do any dangerous work that they might not feel comfortable with.
There's plenty of opportunity for training and workshops though, and I thought we could probably build a permanent pole lathe on site and a couple of shave horses for people to work on. There'll be tons (literally) of greenwood to make stuff from that you can take away at the end of the weekend.
This will be a working woodland experience so the minimum impact aspect of our lifestyle choice won't necessarily be as prevalent as would normally be expected. We will be chopping down trees - and for a very good reason - to let the native trees grow strong and healthy. There will be tons of sycamore to fell and quite a bit of self seeded ash to take out too. The ash is far too overcrowded but is growing tall and straight in tight clumps. It needs thinning out. However, it sounds just perfect for making longbows!
I'm going up for a good recce next week (hospital commitments permitting) and I'll get back on this thread with a full report of what it's like.
I suspect hammocks will be the best choice of accommodation as it sounds like it hasn't been worked for a very long time, so tent space might be a bit tight, however I'll let you all know by next weekend.
Sam also asked me if we'd mind if visitors came along during the weekend to see what we were doing and I told her that would be absoluitly fine with us. She also mentioned the possibility of having a sign made saying what we were doing so people walking their dogs wouldn't think we were an Al Kieda training camp
We can also have the usual H&S Forest operations in progress signs available to us.
So, the big question! Who's interested?
Add your names below please so I can guage the interest. This could become an ongoing opportunity to establish a really beneficial relationship with local authority rangers as well as helping promote bushcraft as we practice it to a wider audience.
Fingers crossed,
Eric
She was very interested in having bushcraft skills practiced in the woods she looks after. We talked for a while and established what she was hoping would come out of it. Basically she is constantly on the lookout for volunteers to help out in the woods, clearing brush and tydying up the undergrowth, as well as removing every sycamore in the woods as they are not a native hardwood and are starving the native trees of light and nutrients. They all have to come out eventually.
So I said I would put the idea to you guys and gals. The deal will go something like we did down at Chedworth earlier this year. Half a day doing some woodland voluntary work and half a day doing our own thing. Basically it's what we like doing anyway so it's hardly going to be a hardship.
I'll most probably be working the woods on my own at other times, felling unwanted trees and such so nobody from here would be expected to do any dangerous work that they might not feel comfortable with.
There's plenty of opportunity for training and workshops though, and I thought we could probably build a permanent pole lathe on site and a couple of shave horses for people to work on. There'll be tons (literally) of greenwood to make stuff from that you can take away at the end of the weekend.
This will be a working woodland experience so the minimum impact aspect of our lifestyle choice won't necessarily be as prevalent as would normally be expected. We will be chopping down trees - and for a very good reason - to let the native trees grow strong and healthy. There will be tons of sycamore to fell and quite a bit of self seeded ash to take out too. The ash is far too overcrowded but is growing tall and straight in tight clumps. It needs thinning out. However, it sounds just perfect for making longbows!
I'm going up for a good recce next week (hospital commitments permitting) and I'll get back on this thread with a full report of what it's like.
I suspect hammocks will be the best choice of accommodation as it sounds like it hasn't been worked for a very long time, so tent space might be a bit tight, however I'll let you all know by next weekend.
Sam also asked me if we'd mind if visitors came along during the weekend to see what we were doing and I told her that would be absoluitly fine with us. She also mentioned the possibility of having a sign made saying what we were doing so people walking their dogs wouldn't think we were an Al Kieda training camp
We can also have the usual H&S Forest operations in progress signs available to us.So, the big question! Who's interested?
Add your names below please so I can guage the interest. This could become an ongoing opportunity to establish a really beneficial relationship with local authority rangers as well as helping promote bushcraft as we practice it to a wider audience.
Fingers crossed,
Eric
