Leave no trace

I never fail to feel disappointment when coming across a sight like this. With just a little thought from the builder you'd never have known that anyone had a campfire here. That's all it takes, a little bit of thought. Leave no trace, principle 5, minimize campfire impacts; you should aim for the site of where you've had a fire to be very hard, if not impossible to spot. Not obvious.

Spoon

I've been practicing bushcraft since before I knew it was called bushcraft, and in all those years I'd never carved a wooden spoon. So I borrowed a crook knife off one of my boys and rectified that, and was pleasantly surprised by my efforts. Not bad for a first attempt, eh?

Woodwork

 

Cleanly and meticulously removed from a long fallen tree, I wonder what'll become of the missing piece. Something cool I imagine.

Foamy

 

You ever wondered why the trees start foaming in the rain? Well. In warm weather a trees' bark produces oils, at the same time a range of natural salts and alkaloids which are free floating in the air can also land on aforementioned oily bark. Add water in the form of rain and you've all the ingredients for a crude soap. As these ingredients move down the trunk they're agitated by the rough bark creating soap molecules which in turn lead to the bubbly foam. It's very crude, and may not be super effective, but it is soap. A useful nugget of bushcraft knowledge that...maybe.

Cone resin

Of late I've seen several of the forests' Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) cones oozing sticky fragrant resin, not just the cones either, their needle like leaves too. As well as being a highly prized and versatile timber with wide ranging use, and its needles making a renowned healing tea, the resin of the Douglas can also be used as an antiseptic to treat wounds, chewed as a gum, or used to treat coughs, colds and sore throats. I just love the smell of it. 

Bracken basket

Walking through Mark Ash Wood we came across evidence that someone had been practising their bushcraft skills. Perched on the mushroom covered hulk of a fallen Beech an incomplete basket woven out of bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) stems; it may have been rough, that's just the nature of the material, but you could see how effective a container could be constructed on the hoof from such an abundant forest resource. Even in it's unfinished state, I was impressed; nice work.

Training day

It's got to that time of year again, when autumn begins to bed in and you sense winter's chill slowly approaching, that I feel it's time to brush up on my bushcraft skills. Number on that skill list is fire; and it's been a while since I've sparked up a small fire. So with a stream side location in mind I sought the components required as we walked; a bark tray to build the fire on, some dried bracken and flaky Sliver Birch bark for tinder and an array of small dry twigs as kindling and fuel. The forest's still rather dry so it didn't take long to get afore mentioned materials together, the forest's a good provider; although of course it's easy to gather for a fire in perfect conditions, and a much harder task in poor weather, which always needs bearing in mind. With the chosen location reached, it took only moments to prepare my gathered materials ready for a fire on a gravelly spot adjacent to the water (for safety); then it only took 2 strikes of the fire steel and the fire was kindled. Again as with gathering the materials, getting a fire lit is quick and easy in perfect conditions, not so in the wind and rain. Incidentally, the fire steel I'm using is a 'Strike Force', which I think I've had for more than 20 years(?), that's a lot of sparks created, and although the ferrous rod is worn concave it still produces a solid spark every strike. A quality tool.

Utter dickery

The utter dickery of folk never ceases to astound me! Some plum (or plums) has built a fire against one of the Sanctuary's trees...what a remarkable lack of cognition. Fortuitously, by luck rather than judgement, not too much damage has been done to the poor tree. Where did we go so wrong that we forgot how to use the fundamental tools which were foundational in the human journey? Of course, it may have been they just didn't give a toss, wilful ignorance is certainly in vogue. Though I like to believe it's more a naïvety, for which I blame a lack of socialization to bushcraft or survival skills, due to our belief in the infallibility of modernity and our dominion over nature...silly monkeys. You know, we could have those believes seriously tested if we carry on our current trajectory. How many people know how to build and feed a fire, the different tinders or methods of igniting them or the properties of individual woods in relation to fire...or anything else for that matter. That's just the tip of an enormous lost essential knowledge iceberg too. How to read landscapes and skies, navigation, flora and fauna, medicinal plants, hunting and foraging, acquiring water, building shelter, and so much more all gone from our collective consciousness. We've lost all the basic survival skills which for thousands of years were innate to our ancestors. Is it any surprise we're lost too, so disconnected from the world that sustains us.

Testing testing

Looks like someone's been out in the woods testing their bushcraft skills, really recently too, those pine branches on top aren't too long cut, and there's still fresh food waste nearby. Nice little shelter, simple but effective, and definitely left to be reused. Interesting choice of site, it's a closely packed young coniferous plantation, though recently (last couple of years) damaged by fire, leaving it far more open and exposed that it would naturally be.  Still, the close stands provide good cover, enough to conceal a small fire from a distance, and a degree of shelter from the elements. More people practice their bushcraft/survival skills or wild camp out in the forest than you'd think. I come across the evidence regularly, and that doesn't include those who leave little or no trace behind them.

For the chop

Here's a thing, roaming through Brinken Wood this morning we stumbled upon something interesting, two adjacent young Oaks, of near identical girth, have been chopped down with axes. At first I wondered whether it was some bushcraft project, though no, the trunks remained where they'd fallen. Maybe it was a felling competition or something. Whatever, it seems a touch wasteful to fell timber for no purpose. The stumps are weathered and the branches of the trunks are all but weathered away, these trees were felled some years ago. The archaeologist in me found the age of the event interesting and I wondered how long such evidence of human activity survives and what messages the might have purveyed? In the past when people were more mobile or when the country was less inhabited features like felled trees would certainly have suggested you may have entered already occupied/used territory, they could've been used as territorial markers or marked seasonal camping sites. Of course, I tend to over think things. The facets on the stumps suggest that smallish axes were used, something like a small forest axe or hatchet, and wood-chips could still be identified amongst the leaf litter. I reckon by the weathering and state of preservation, these trees were downed a decade (?) ago. I'll never know what the motivations were here, beyond chopping down a couple of trees, of course. Another story in the forest's infinite library, listed under 'mystery', the library's most expansive section.

Close but no cigar

You see this quite a bit nowadays, some one has had a BBQ out in the forest. Whoever it is has thought about the effects of the hot BBQ on the dry grass/earth, unfortunately, good as their idea appeared, it never really works. It shows willing though lack of experience/knowledge. The funny thing is when you see remains of this nature they're inevitably next to streams (that's the source of the stones), and the perfect safe place for a BBQ or small fire* is on a area of exposed gravelly stream bed. Another things is, although maybe not so important in light of the heat of a BBQ, is the type of stones commonly found in the forest are usually silica based flints and cherts which will explode if exposed to prolonged or intense heat, sending razor shards flying in all directions. Still, close but no cigar. And hey, it may be part of someone’s learning journey, and we all had to learn. 

*fires are forbidden in the forest, as too few people know sufficient bushcraft skills to undertake, what should be, rudimentary human activities. It's not really peoples problem, it a societal one, on the whole folk are disenfranchised from those aspects of human behaviour and the natural environment, and as a consequence are rarely socialized or educated as to how to be part of nature...rather than an alien in it.  

Drying up

The forest has changed massively since the restoration program, old water courses filled in, even older water courses reopened and renewed, and overall the stream environs becoming wetter and more seasonally lush. The main reason for this is that the streams flow slower and the woodland now retains the seasonal waters for longer. It's changed how you can traverse the wet season forest, making some areas impossible to navigate without wellies. Though, at this time of year though the waters are receding, with many of the more ephemeral water courses are returning to their 'wadi' (dried seasonal stream bed) state, only flowing for a few months a year. This is nowhere more apparent than in Brinken Wood, which in a particularly wet season can be near aquatic for months, with even the dry looking bits actually being sodden underfoot. To me it's the season of the old tracks, the routes I traditionally wandered throughout the year before the restoration. I like the changes, mind, it adds to the forests magic and seasonal differences that define the wheel of the year. If you were to dig into these seemingly dry 'wadis' though, you'd find some will continue to flow underground throughout the year, a good bit of survival knowledge to have, as even in the driest season  digging a 'gypsy well' may supply you with much needed water. The forest has much to teach and much to offer in the way of resource.