Natural Shelter and leaving no trace (Small Rant)

[EarthToSimon]

Recently I've started noticing a lot of natural shelters in most of the woods I walk in.

Most of them look like they haven't been visited in a while but whoever builds them just leaves them.
Should I dismantle them and return the woods to how they were or am I better off leaving them for a bit?

Personally I feel that no matter how you sleep in the woods you should try not to leave a trace, but is it seen as acceptable to leave natural shelters?

 

[Barn Owl]

Dismantle if you want,most probably won't be used by anyone.
remember though, that it could have been someone thinking they were doing a fellow traveller a favour by leaving a shelter for them.
Or someone who was rather proud of their efforts and couldn't bring themselves to pull it down.

Most of the time it'll have been someones first shelter build i'm sure and probably not aware of the leave no trace ethos.

 

[tiger stacker]

Leave them up, ray mears commented on a shelter he had made in canada stll being intact a few years after being made. Sometimws you dont have the energy or just need a wee respite from the rain or wind.

 

[Silverclaws]

What is left behind like Barn Owl said might be of use to someone else, but what about the wildlife, what is left by us, might be of use to it, but in time nature will right the wrongs if there are any.

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

I walked through a woodland that wa slittered with them today. An absolute eyesore, tatty rubbish from some form of 'bushcraft school' using a public place.

 

[EarthToSimon]

thanks for the advice

Didn't think about wildlife living in them, considering taking down a few and leaving the best ones.
Counted 9 in the midge infested swamp wood of allerton bywater one looked really well done but the others looked like someone who'd seen it and had a go at copying it.

It might even be kids building dens, so I don't want to upset anyone.

 

[xylaria]

one of the woods we use, is also used by an national organisation that engages with school children for quite a large fee. They leave debris shelters in situ. The scout movement and ATC dont, just them. This seems common practise around here as far as we can see.

 

[Kepis]

We see a lot of A frame type shelters left standing in the woods we visit, most are built by and just left there by the local Forest School.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

I always get the class to dismantle them and scatter the materials. But we tend to do it in a country park, albeit in the unused bits. The Rangers are not bothered.

Leave No Trace is the way to go !

 

[Man of Tanith]

I walked through a woodland that was littered with them today. An absolute eyesore, tatty rubbish from some form of 'bushcraft school' using a public place.

Really? most if not all bushcraft schools i have heard of are firm advocates of the leave no trace ethos
a lot of them have rented land to run courses on-something to do with the insurance matters i believe

 

[Bowlander]

Someone left one in a wood local to me, they also trashed some of the keepers traps and burnt some fence posts - idiots spoiling it for everybody.

 

[Perrari]

I have left natural shelters that I have made still standing when I leave. As long as all the materials are natural I dont see a problem, especially as I will return to the same place again. However I do clear any signs of any fires that I made, seats etc, and take home anything that is not natural, so other than the shelter itself it looks normal. I visited one shelter on Saturday that I built about 18 months ago, it now has ferns growing from the roof, in fact I struggled to find it as it was so well comouflaged.
I did a couple of months ago come accross a shelter made from blue tarp & wire core washing line a few partly burned logs and beer cans, bottles & plastic bin bags. it obviously hadnt been used for a couple of years, so I did demolish it and removed all the litter/ man made materials and disposed of them in the nearest bin.

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

Really? most if not all bushcraft schools i have heard of are firm advocates of the leave no trace ethos
a lot of them have rented land to run courses on-something to do with the insurance matters i believe

Well I may be wrong Sam but there is a huge mess of the damn things in the area and various people have sighted commercial groups using the site. I am a commercial outdoor provider on Dartmoor and know of at least one company that run bushcraft skills courses without the direct permission of the national park (there is a requirement to seek their permission). There are fires there too - there is a bylaw banning fires on the moor.

I may be wrong, but I doubt it.

 

[Man of Tanith]

That's a swine

 

[sasquatch]

I walked through a woodland that wa slittered with them today. An absolute eyesore, tatty rubbish from some form of 'bushcraft school' using a public place.

We use a woods near me for building shelters through an outdoor centre(with permission of course). The kids get the option of leaving them up or kicking them down. Mixed responses as some don't have the heart to destroy their hard work and some love it. We leave them for the day then go back and dismantle them in an endless cycle.

 

[Home Guard]

Depending on how they're built, they're a good supply of dry wood.

 

[Shovel]

If they're are any unnatural materials in them, like trash, tarps, or anything, dismantle it and bring the trash with you. If it's not well built, it'll dissolve sooner or later. If it is well built, leave it for that random rainstorm.

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

We use a woods near me for building shelters through an outdoor centre(with permission of course). The kids get the option of leaving them up or kicking them down. Mixed responses as some don't have the heart to destroy their hard work and some love it. We leave them for the day then go back and dismantle them in an endless cycle.

I am sure there are good 'users' out there. The place I am alluding to is an established arboretum and the shelters are, to be quite honest, shoddy.

 

[Wayland]

Well I may be wrong Sam but there is a huge mess of the damn things in the area and various people have sighted commercial groups using the site. I am a commercial outdoor provider on Dartmoor and know of at least one company that run bushcraft skills courses without the direct permission of the national park (there is a requirement to seek their permission). There are fires there too - there is a bylaw banning fires on the moor.

I may be wrong, but I doubt it.

If it's anything like the National Trust they also steal pictures in the South West.

I recently found the Trust using one of my pictures to advertise their overnight "wild camping" events without a hint of asking me permission.

When confronted them I got a mealy mouthed apology saying that the person responsible for media in the area didn't realise that permission was required and had intended no harm.

The next sentence went on to say how professional they all were. Bunch of feckless idiots.

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

If it's anything like the National Trust they also steal pictures in the South West.

I recently found the Trust using one of my pictures to advertise their overnight "wild camping" events without a hint of asking me permission.

When confronted them I got a mealy mouthed apology saying that the person responsible for media in the area didn't realise that permission was required and had intended no harm.

The next sentence went on to say how professional they all were. Bunch of feckless idiots.

Folow it up with an invoice for publicity material. I would You have nothing to lose but the cost of a stamp - honestly their publicity department will know they are bang-to-rights.