Bushcraft

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Bushcraft is the use and practice of skills, thereby acquiring and developing knowledge and understanding, in order to survive and thrive in a natural environment.

Bushcraft skills provide for the basic physiological 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 the knowledge to handle certain tools such as bushcraft knives and axes. A bushcrafter can use these tools to create many different types of constructions, from dugout canoes to a-frame shelters. There are various types of shelters to construct or use in the wilderness. The first is a purpose-built shelter like a tent. Another example is an improvised shelter, like using a large tarp or blanket as a tent. Indigenous shelters include a snow cave or bark lean-to. Lastly, natural shelters include caves, underneath a tree, or within thickets.^[1]

Bushcraft includes the knowledge to tie different knots for different purposes. These 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 you can tension the rope during the first part of the knot tying. Tying bondages together like a sling is a common use. The figure 8 loop is a strong knot because it forms a loop that will not draw tight. You can use a figure 8 loop 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 rope, or fore tying up 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 use 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 was popularized in the Southern Hemisphere by Les Hiddins (the Bush Tucker Man) as well as in the Northern Hemisphere by Mors Kochanski and more recently gained considerable currency in the United Kingdom due to the popularity of Ray Mears and his bushcraft and survival television programs.^[3] The origin of the phrase "bushcraft" comes from skills used in the Australian bush. Often the phrases "wilderness skills" or "woodcraft" are used as they describe skills used all over the world.^{[citation needed][4]}