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Bushcraft is the use and practice of skills to survive and thrive in anatural environment. Bushcraft skills includeforaging,hunting,fishing,firecraft, and tyingknots.Woodcraft is a subset of bushcraft that focuses on survival skills for use inwoodland orforest environments.Fieldcraft is a military or tactical form of bushcraft.
Bushcraft skills providebasic necessities for human life: food (throughforaging,tracking,hunting,trapping,fishing), water sourcing andpurification, shelter-building, andfirecraft. These may be supplemented with expertise intwine-making,knots and lashings, wood-carving, campcraft, medicine/health, natural navigation, andtool and weapon making.
Bushcraft includes skill with tools such as bushcraft knives andaxes. A skilled bushcrafter can use these tools to create many different things, fromdugout canoes toA-frame shelters.
Purpose-built shelters such astents are commonly used in the wilderness. Tents can also be improvised from a large tarp or blanket. Indigenous shelters include asnow cave or barklean-to. Natural shelters includecaves, the space underneath a tree, or within thickets.[1]
Knot-tying is an important bushcraft skill. Commonly used knots include thereef knot,figure-8 loop,improved clinch knot,clove hitch, andsnare noose. The reef knot is also referred to as a square knot. It is good for bundling items together because one can tension the rope during the first part of the knot tying. Tying bandages together like a sling is a common use. The figure-8 loop forms a loop that will not draw tight. It can be used 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 a rope, or for tying something 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 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 termbushcraft originally referred to skills used inthe Australian bush. The word has been used in its current sense in Australia and South Africa at least as far back as the 1800s.Bush in this sense is probably a direct adoption of the Dutchbosch (nowbos), originally used in Dutch colonies for woodland and country covered with natural wood, but extended to usage in British colonies to refer to uncleared or un-farmed districts, still in a state of nature. Later this was used by extension for the country as opposed to the town. In Southern Africa, they getBushman from the Dutchboschjesman applied by the Dutch colonists to the natives living in the bush. In North America, where there was also considerable colonisation by the Dutch, they have the wordbushwacker which is close to the Dutchbosch-wachter (nowboswachter) meaning "forest-keeper" or "forest ranger".
Historically, the term has been spotted in the following books (amongst others):
The term was popularized in theSouthern Hemisphere byLes Hiddins (the Bush Tucker Man) and in theNorthern Hemisphere byMors Kochanski. It more recently gained currency in the United Kingdom due to the popularity ofRay Mears and his bushcraft and survival television programs.[4]
The word bushcraft was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as atrademark by Bushcraft USA LLC on November 12, 2013, as aservice mark, for "Providing an on-lineforum for bushcraft," and "Providing on-line forums for transmission of messages among computer users concerning bushcraft" (Ser. No. 85690815). This led to some concern about the validity of the mark among Internet users who asserted there were senior uses of the mark in a more general context such as Mors Kochanski as early as 1981, however no formal opposition was ever filed, nor any assertion of continuous use in commerce as the mark related to Internet forums. As of 2021, Bushcraft USA has not publicly enforced its mark against other Internet forums using the term.
The Irish-born Australian writerRichard Graves titled his outdoor manuals "The 10 bushcraft books".[5]
Canadian wilderness instructorMors Kochanski published the "Northern Bushcraft" book in 1981 and an expanded edition of the book in 1988. He has[6] stated on numerous occasions that book title was an explicit reference to Graves' work.[7]
The term has enjoyed a recent popularity largely thanks toRay Mears,Cody Lundin,Les Hiddins,Les Stroud,Dave Canterbury andMors Kochanski and their television programs.
The dictionary definition ofbushcraft at Wiktionary
Media related toBushcraft at Wikimedia Commons