Bushcraft shelters in winter - no tent/sleeping bag

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Poacherman

Banned
Sep 25, 2023
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Wigan
Building the shelter of course disturbs local wildlife, but so does being there at all. Dismantling it after use disturbs the wildlife a second time. I'm thinking of the insects that will have settled in it overnight. As for natural shelter vs bivi, when we're thinking ecologically we can't ignore the industry and infrastructure that goes into a mass-produced bivi. It may be less of a disturbance than raking up leaves but only very locally. More of a disturbance globally. Camp fires, well I'm sure the wildlife would prefer we didn't. But there are lots of things wildlife does that we'd prefer they didn't. I like to leave shelters intact for others to see, especially kids. What reason is there to care about the wild if we don't feel a part of it? To me 'leave no trace' (meaning no trace visible to us, and us alone) only serves to reinforce our separateness from the wild, which does nothing to protect it in the long run, only dooms it to further mistreatment.
I agree
 

n00b

Forager
Aug 7, 2023
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This guy is abs correct.
Yeah this is my experience too. I sleep outside all year round and in past winters due to weather haven't bothered with fire much at all. But that's with sleeping bag, thermal layers, heat-reflectors etc.
 

n00b

Forager
Aug 7, 2023
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Imagine if all the bushcrafters in the UK would do it. Perhaps this gives you a clue what Broch is talking about.
Even in Finland where we have this "everymans right" and we are allowed to freely walk and camp almost everywhere, we are not allowed to cut trees or branches.
If all the bushcrafters in the uk did it we'd be getting somewhere. Maybe others would see how great it is and follow our lead, abandoning the cities and taking our species back toward equilibrium with the planet.
 
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n00b

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Aug 7, 2023
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I didn't realise you weren't allowed to cut trees or branches in Finland. What's the rule? Is it literally any trees or branches?
 

Pattree

Full Member
Jul 19, 2023
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It’s a difficult point but there simply isn’t enough room and there aren’t enough resources in the UK for everyone to adopt a bushcraft lifestyle. If you want a CT scanner or modern medical care of any sort you need industry.
Do you drive a car or pedal a bike? Do you use aluminium or steel? What do you wear when you are sleeping outside without a shelter.

Humanity depends upon a division of labour to support its present population. Generalism and off-grid is a for a few supported by a pyramid of specialists.
UK cannot feed itself; it is dependent upon imports. Our main offer to the rest of the world is a betting shop called the London Stock Exchange.
I’m not bitter about this. I’m not off grid: I have a titanium pacemaker! They are hard to make with a knife and an axe.

If bushcraft has anything to offer the wider world it is a mindset rather than a practice.

In general:
Perhaps we don’t need all our current living space.
Perhaps we don’t need to heat our homes to modern standards.
Perhaps we don’t need to eat as much as we do?
Perhaps we don’t need the variety of foods that are currently available.
Perhaps we don’t need the range of “stuff that we currently have.

….. but who then would reach for the stars?

What is certain is that we can’t all sleep outside without a shelter (or a waste water system).
 

n00b

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Aug 7, 2023
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So it's all worth it for space travel and medical solutions to health problems that domestication causes?
Never mind that there isn't enough room and there aren't enough resources for this population on this planet. I suppose that's where space travel comes in - as another civilised solution to a civilised problem.

I know we can't have global civilisation AND let people live how they want. That's why I'm against global civilisation. I know you probably don't mean it this way, but you're basically arguing for the continued enslavement of your planet and species, not to mention all the others.
 
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n00b

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Aug 7, 2023
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That I feel the need for a bike, and a sleeping bag, and all this other slave-made industrial tat, just shows how domesticated I am compared to my wild ancestors, and the indigenous people that still resist domestication today.
 
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TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,129
1,650
Vantaa, Finland
That I feel the need for a bike, and a sleeping bag, and all this other slave-made industrial tat, just shows how domesticated I am compared to my wild ancestors, and the indigenous people that still resist domestication today.
I think it is well documented that many industrial products were eagerly taken by indigenous people when available. Some things just make life easier and they were quick to figure that out. That is not the same as the present overabundance of unnecessary widgets.

Trekking is one way to figure out the unnecessary things, camping not as much.
 

n00b

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Aug 7, 2023
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The indigenous groups that I'm referring to, the ones that survive today by continuing to resist domestication, do not eagerly take industrial products. Either they learned not to from what happened to their neighbours who did or they just know to refuse.
Many are examples of post-collapse societies, groups whose ancestors were civilised. The native Americans were, for example, so they had that knowledge of how **** an idea civilisation is passed down in their folklore and knew exactly what they were dealing with when Europeans arrived. Some Amazonian tribes may be descendants of humans domesticated as the Inca. They're not naive.
 
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