A Life in the Woods

Forrester Bushcraft is a self-described outdoorsman, woodsman, and survivalist who developed a passion for bushcraft from a young age. His love for the outdoors and adventure led him to spend his formative years exploring the woods and learning about nature. His interest in bushcraft intensified during his archaeology studies, where he became fascinated by the Stone Age and how people lived off the land.

A Passion for Adventure

I grew up in the northwest of England in the 80s & 90s from a very young age I was interested in adventure and the outdoors. Rapidly this turned into me having very few friends throughout my formative years, While the other kids were off playing football or going into town to hang out I spent my days alone in the woods learning everything I could about nature.

From Woodsman to Bushcraft

Growing up, outdoors skills were a huge part of my life, from playing in the woods to going on hikes and walks, I loved the outdoors, and my passion for real bushcraft however; really blossomed when I was studying Archaeology at university, I became fascinated with the stone age and how these people thousands of years ago lived off the land, making everything for themselves. From there I began to dig really deep into the skills of the outdoorsman.

The Spark of Bushcraft

In my early years I first learned of bushcraft from Ray Mears’ show ‘Country tracks’ from there I gathered all of the reading materials I could and consumed as much information on woodcraft skills as possible, spending every free moment I had down the woods. As mentioned previously this fascination further grew through my academic studies in Archaeology.

Specializing in Nature Awareness

Whilst I don’t necessarily consider myself to be specialised in any one area, there are a few areas that deeply interest me, in particular, Nature awareness (reading your environment, the weather and wildlife tracking) my interest in these subjects has come from a love of connection with nature and curiosity about how the human mind works, I’ve become fascinated by how using these ancient skills to read our landscapes affect our minds and mental health.

Essential Bushcraft Skills

When it comes to what essential bushcraft skills people should have this really depends upon your existing skill set, many life skills tie in nicely to the world of bushcraft, but for beginners and even those with experience, the key skills I would say are essential to work on consistently are: -

Tree & plant identification

Navigation

Cooking

Fire lighting

These skills link together nicely and once they’re mastered, they become easy, and you can then open yourself up to learning some of the less critical but more interesting skills.

Staying Up-to-Date with Bushcraft

This is an interesting question as there tend to be few ‘advancements’ in true bushcraft as the skills are as old as the human race though people are often showcasing varieties of ways to achieve different results for things such as carving or firefighting. Social media is actually a fantastic place to stay in touch with people who are practising and learning skills (once you can get past the millions of photos of knives!) YouTube in particular is a great place for people to learn and see new skills.

A Moment of Self-Reliance

One of my most memorable experiences was actually a minor event but one that solidified my confidence in my own skill set and proved to me the importance of bushcraft skills in wilderness environments. I was cutting some wood for a fire in a reasonably remote area and I sliced the back of my hand open quite badly. However, in the moment I was able to stay calm despite the seriousness of the injury. Using my skills I was able to, calmly and quickly with one hand, build a fire to boil water in order to sterilise the wound before administering first aid to myself and quickly re-navigate a quick route out to get to the hospital. Whilst a small story this in particular stood out to me as a reason that bushcraft and wilderness skills are so important to anyone going into the wilder parts of the world, regardless of their activity. For this reason, bushcraft goes beyond simple survival skills and becomes a mindset for being at ease with being, often, alone in nature.

The Philosophy of Bushcraft

For me, as I’ve mentioned a few times above, bushcraft isn’t about tools and kits and shiny knives (although, they are cool!) it is about oneness with nature. It is about being a human animal in our natural environment, it is a mindset that brings us closer to nature in not only our bodies but also our minds, it is about feeling like you belong to, and in nature, when we practice bushcraft, we are not visiting nature, we are part of it. Whilst outdoors this mindset helps me to remain calm and focused, I belong there. But also, it reminds me that I have to follow nature's rules whilst I'm out, there are things in this world that would make me their lunch! So, when you are out there remember, it isn’t the human world you are in anymore.

Sustainable Use of Resources

On the face of it, bushcraft can seem as though it is taking a lot from the environment however this can actually BENEFIT the local area, new studies are showing that minor human activity whilst practising bushcraft can help the forest for example, taking down a hazel shoot or two allows more light to the forest floor providing much-needed sunlight for smaller plants and mosses. The key thing however is to make sure we do everything as minimally as possible, do not continually take from or use a single space, move around use a wide environment be sparing with the materials we use.

A Foraged Spring Meal

I am… though I'm no expert at this…yet! As it is spring at the time of writing this my go-to foraged meal would be to make some garlic bread using wild ramsons topped with some buttered jelly ear fungi and washed down with some nettle tea or birch sap. Simple, easy-to-identify natural ingredients and the true taste of spring in northern England.
I’d love to add more stories but there are far too many to include here!

To continue following our explorer Forrester’s journey or simply want to reach out and say Hi, you can connect with Forrester on the following accounts:

Instagram: Forrester Bushcraft (@forresterbushcraft) • Instagram photos and videos

Forrester can be found anywhere on social media by using the name ‘Forrester Bushcraft’

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@forresteroutdoors

Email: If you are interested in hiring Forrester for lessons, interviews or collaborations his e-mail address is Forrester_bushcraft@hotmail.co.uk