The School Of The Forest Podcast (Christopher Russell)

Welcome to Episode 21

We're joined this time by basket weaver and hide tanner Willa Moore. Willa and I jump right into the first half of this conversation talking about her shift from growing up in new york city, to now living in Maine and teaching things like basketry and hide tanning, and how those practices foster a reverence for the natural world. 

We also talk about the value of taking your time to do something and paying attention to the materials you're working with as opposed to knocking out projects left and right and not learning anything real about the process. Thanks for listening, and keep an eye out for the second half of our conversation next week.

Willa's Instagram 

Welcome back.

This is the second half of my chat with Willa Moore. In the first half, we discussed how she got involved in a life lived outdoors and developed a passion for basket making and hide tanning.
In this second episode, we have a really compelling conversation about some of the negative sides of the American outdoor industry, ranging from representation and accessibility, to a need for a more welcoming and caring community during long term wilderness experiences, instead of the current "rugged individual" stereotype that's become pervasive in many outdoor pursuits. I learned a lot, chatting with Willa, and really enjoyed hearing her perspective on how we in the outdoor industry can create a more welcoming environment for people who're interested in getting started or taking part in this lifestyle. I hope you all get as much out of it as I did.

Thanks for listening.

Willa's Instagram

Welcome to the school of the forest podcast. 

This week we're joined by a really exciting guest, Bob Henderson. I was a little stars truck during this conversation, as Bob's work was crucial in creating the Friluftsliv year long program, and remains a huge influence on my guiding style, philosophy about experiential education and approach to spending time in the outdoors.

Bob is a writer, guide and outdoor educator. Bob is the Editor and author of "Nature First; Outdoor Life The Friluftsliv Way". This book is one of the cornerstones of my career and style as a guide and educator, and getting the chance to pick Bob's brain about how he discovered friluftsliv and how it shaped his approach to guiding and "building an ambiance" for trips was an absolute pleasure. In this episode we talk about what friluftsliv is, how Bob discovered the concept and how well it meshed with the style he'd already started to build as a young guide and educator. 

This is the first of three episodes that came of my conversation with Bob, so be sure to stayed tuned for the other two episodes, where we chat about Arne Naess' Anti Expedition in Nepal, how we've seen the philosophy of friluftlsiv create change in students, and a whole lot more. 

Bob's Website

Bob's Upcoming Book And Other Writing

Nature First; Outdoor Life The Friluftsliv Way (This Link is For Amazon, you can also contact Bob directly to order a copy if Amazon isn't for you)

Wisdom In The Open Air

SOTF's Friluftsliv Program

We're joined again this week by Bob Henderson, as we pick up our conversation from last week. In this section, Bob and I chat about his time in Norway, and some of the cultural differences he saw that influenced his approach to taking students into the outdoors.  Bob shares a lot of great insights and stories from his time in the bush, and it was a pleasure to chat with him. 

Bob is a writer, guide, and outdoor educator. Bob is the Editor and author of "Nature First; Outdoor Life The Friluftsliv Way". This book is one of the cornerstones of my career and style as a guide and educator, and getting the chance to pick Bob's brain about how he discovered friluftsliv and how it shaped his approach to guiding and "building an ambiance" for trips was an absolute pleasure. 

This is the second of three episodes that came of my conversation with Bob, so be sure to stay tuned for the other last episodes next week, where we chat about Arne Naess' Anti Expedition in Nepal, how we've seen the philosophy of friluftlsiv create change in students, and a whole lot more. 

Bob's Website

Bob's Upcoming Book And Other Writing

Nature First; Outdoor Life The Friluftsliv Way (This Link is For Amazon, you can also contact Bob directly to order a copy if Amazon isn't for you)

Wisdom In The Open Air

SOTF's Friluftsliv Program

Welcome to the last, and my favorite piece of my conversation with Bob Henderson. 

Bob and I talk about a mutual admiration for Arne Naess, and his "anti-expedition" to nepal, and how that sort of attitude to the outdoors changes the way people enjoy their time in nature. We go on to chat about Bob's plans to continue that anti expedition with his own trip to Nepal, and I've got to say it sounds like one of the most rewarding and inspriring undertakings I've heard of in a while. 

Thanks again to Bob for coming on. 

Bob's Website

Bob's Upcoming Book And Other Writing

Nature First; Outdoor Life The Friluftsliv Way (This Link is For Amazon, you can also contact Bob directly to order a copy if Amazon isn't for you)

Wisdom In The Open Air

SOTF's Friluftsliv Program

Welcome,

In this episode, I'm joined by Murphy Robinson, who runs Mountainsong Expeditions here in Vermont.

Murphy and I talk about how they first got involved in working as a guide, what drew them to start Mountainsong, and how that's developed since.
We also touch on the culture of hunting as it exists in modern North America, and how the programs at mountainsong offer a different approach for new hunters, specifically women, and marginalized genders, that they wouldn't be able to find in a traditional hunters education course. We also touch on the issues of cultural appropriation in the outdoor industry, and a lot more.

The second half of our conversation will be live next week, and we talk about the specifics of Murphy's guided hunting expeditions, and a lot more, so stay tuned.

Murphy's Programs

Murphy's Hunting e-course

Murphy's Podcast

Writings from Murphy About Cultural Appropriation

Welcome,

This is the second half of my conversation with Murphy Robinson of Mountainsong Expeditions, and we jump into talking about the guided hunts that Murphy Facilitates for women and marginalized genders, the myth of the "lone hunter", and the value of a good camp cook. This whole conversation was a joy, and the perspectives Murphy brings to the guiding/outdoor education community are really valuable. 

Thanks again to Murphy for joining us, and if you haven't yet, go check out the programs offered by Mountainsong in the links below.

Murphy's Programs

Murphy's Hunting e-course

Murphy's Podcast

Writings from Murphy About Cultural Appropriation

Welcome,

This episode we're joined by Kathleen White and Steve Shriner, members of the Friends Of The West River Trail, an organization that was founded to create accessible nature trails here in southern Vermont. The goal of the organization is to create a contiguous trail system that connects the towns in the west river valley of Vermont, and provide everyone in that area with access to the natural world. During our chat, we cover the founding of the organization, some of the experiences we've had while recreating on the trail system and the river that runs along it, the ecology of the river, and the varied biomes that people can interact with while walking the trail. It was a great conversation about an incredible organization that's doing the work of making the outdoors accessible to everyone, no matter their ability and experience in the natural world.

Friends Of The West River Trail

Get In Touch About Volunteer Opportunities With The West River Trail

WRT Facebook

SOTF's Programs

Glad to be back after a short break,

Really excited for this podcast to go live since it'll allow me to announce our latest course offering. I sat down with Rick Swain to talk about his business "The Scroll", a SOLO certified wilderness medicine training program. Rick was a student of ours last year and has helped out on other programs since then. It was a pleasure to talk to him about why his twenty plus years of real-world field experience makes the programs he's offering different than others you might find. Great chat, looking forward to seeing some of you on this program. 

We’re partnering with The Scroll to offer a wilderness first aid certification course. Having wilderness first aid training is an important aspect of spending time in the backcountry, and Rick is a highly trained medical professional with a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with students.

SOTF's Solo Certified Wilderness First Aid Course
 
The Scroll (Ricks Website)

In this episode, I'm joined by a good friend, and former student, Adam Lougee who runs a sister program to SOTF in New Hampshire. Adam was a Student at Jack Mountain in my early years as an instructor there and has since gone on to lead education programs all over New England. His program, First Magnitude is getting ready to hit the ground running with a 40+ acre piece of property in New Hampshire. In this episode, Adam and I get down into the nitty-gritty of challenges to anyone looking to break into this field and talk about the value of community and the myth of the rugged individual (You folks may have noticed a trend with this topic coming up in conversation. We certainly have) and a lot more. Great conversation, hope you enjoy it.

 
First Magnitude Wilderness Programs

First Magnitude Instagram

F.O.R.E.S.T. Program - Vermont Huts Association

Summer Guided Discoveries | Squam Lakes Natural Science Center (nhnature.org)

School Of The Forest Program Calendar

In the first episode of the SOTF podcast, I sit down with three of the students on our trip up to northern Quebec to spend time with David and Anna Bosum, two Cree elders who have built a guide service and cultural tourism business around sharing their way of life with people who come and visit them. For me information about these trips please check the links below.

Nuuhchimi Wiinuu Cree Cultural Tours; David and Anna's business

Oujé-Bougoumou; the Cree community we visited has a lot of interesting history, and is worth reading a bit about

Winter Living With The Cree" trip from Jack Mountain

School Of The Forest

In this episode, I sit down with Mike Clough, the director of the southern Vermont history museum. The Museum features a gigantic natural history collection, live birds that guests can interact with, and a staff of volunteers who put in their own time to care for this piece of Vermont's history. We cover the history of the museum, different approaches to education, some anecdotes about the birds we have the privilege to work with, and the future of the museum, as well as riffing on the benefits of interacting with live animals as a gateway into an outdoor lifestyle.

 Southern Vermont Natural History Museum

The Museums educational programs

In this episode, I sit down with an old friend, Ed "Working Class Woodsman" Butler to talk about hunting, fishing and trapping as a way of getting to know the landscape around you. We delve into the ethics of hunting, how hunting and fishing help manage local species population, and avoiding social media if you're a young person who wants to give these pursuits. We also talk quite a bit about the value and learning opportunities to be had if you're just starting out fishing or hunting.

Links;
A great article about young people getting started with hunting

Working Class Woodsman Website

School Of The Forest

In this episode, I'm joined by Richard Zinck to talk about his research into making fire by friction. Most modern practitioners of this skill learn to intuit certain aspects and nuances of the friction fire process, but Richard is using a scientific approach to create equations that can make predictions about what will work, and what won't, as well as using that data to try to make educated guesses about the way ancient hominids created fire. We talk about his research, and how this information can help people learning to make fire by friction, as well as provide some insight into the bigger learning opportunities for young people who participate in this skill.

As we mentioned at the end of the podcast, we're looking for people to help us collect that data, so if you're someone who practices friction fire regularly, or are just starting to learn, get in touch with us, or join our social network at Bushcraftschool.com. We'll be keeping an eye out for you.

Links:
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham
Our Social Media Site, where you can participate in Richard's study
The School Of The Forest Website

We're excited about this one. Raife Bowman and I were students together on a spring semester at Jack Mountain Bushcraft School, and have been friends since. Raife is a veteran and highly motivated individual who's been slowly putting together the pieces of a new outdoor school in his home state of Alaska. He got some interesting ideas about building a truly immersive experience, and I personally can't wait to see how they play out.

In this episode, we discuss those ideas, talk a lot about avoiding bringing machismo into the outdoors, and tell a few stories about our time together in northern Maine.

Check him out at his website, or get in touch through email at Raife@arcticfieldcraft.com. 

In this episode I'm joined by Nick Katrick from WolfgardNE, a nonprofit that focuses on educating the public about wild canids, not only from a scientific point of view, but from a mythological standpoint. Why did wolves become so maligned in western culture? What can we as outdoorsmen and women learn from these incredible creatures? All of these questions and more are answered here. It was a great discussion, covering everything from hunting and trapping, some interesting stories from around the world about wolves, and much more.

You can find Nick at the links below. Wolfgard is working hard to build a bigger educational approach to wild canids, and your help is appreciated.

WolfgardNE's website

Wolfgard's Facebook Page, where you can learn about fundraising, and the current projects they're working on. 

We're back after a long break for our semester programs.  Sorry for the wait, but we're glad to be back.

In this episode, I'm joined by Nick Daniel of Dartmouth-Hitchcock in New Hampshire. Nick has taught AWLS courses regionally and internationally and has taught wilderness medicine in such locations as the Adirondacks, White Mountains, Mexico, Africa, Guatemala, Russia, and Panama. He spent a month in the Indian Himalayas teaching medical students while providing medical care, as well as time in Haiti. He has completed his FAWM and earned a diploma in mountain medicine. Nick’s research interests in wilderness medicine include hypothermia, frostbite, altitude medicine, mountaineering psychology, and hiker preparedness. Recently, he and his coworkers from Dartmouth's wilderness and emergency medicine program came out to our campus for an introduction to wilderness living/survival skills. 

Our conversation ranges from talking about Nicks's background and experience in the outdoors, the program for wilderness medicine fellowships at Dartmouth, as well as some insight into the psychology behind who finishes trips and who doesn't, and why that is. 

I had a great time talking with Nick, and working with him on the course here at our campus in southern VT. I'm pretty sure you'll get a kick out of our conversation as well.

If you like the podcast, please leave us a review, and to learn more about our programs please visit Schooloftheforest.com

Links;

Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales

Wilderness Medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock

In the latest episode of the SOTF podcast, I'm joined by Jackie Stratton, a registered Maine Guide, and Maine master naturalist. We talked about everything from Jackie's passion for the outdoors and how it started, her path to becoming a Maine guide and hunter, and how she wants to build a guide service that specifically aims to provide guiding trips for women, families, queer and trans folks, and other groups that don't often get representation in the outdoor industry.  This is a great chat,  touching on a lot of topics that I think need more exposure in the Guiding/Outdoor Education conversations that are always occurring around campfires.

Jackie was a great host, and you can find her at the Waterways guiding website, as well as on Instagram, and Airbnb if you want a nice spot to enjoy a quiet weekend.

Links:

Maine Women Hunters FB page

Lead With Nature Podcast

In this episode, I'm joined by my friend Nora Gordon. Nora is an incredibly talented textile artist and has spent the last year or so studying natural dyeing in order to add to the self-sufficiency and sustainability of her craftsmanship. Nora is a middle school science and math teacher by trade and brings a lot of insight into the chemistry of what's happening during the dyeing process, but explains it in a very straight forward way.  We had a great conversation about her philosophy of crafting, her joy at finding a community of local dyers willing to show her the ropes, and much more.

Links:
Hannah Regier's website

Other Artists using Natural Dyes:

Betsy Giberson

Iris Sullivan

Hello everyone, and happy new year.

I'm excited to start this year's series of podcasts with a conversation with my friend Arthur Davis, director of the Urine Nutrient Reclamation Project at the Rich Earth Institute and coordinator of Rich Earth’s new festival toilet business. Rich Earth uses human urine to create sustainable fertilizer for farmers.  Long time listeners will have heard us talk about the Humanure system we use for our off-grid campuses, but Rich Earth has taken that philosophy and moved it to a community scale, and are the first in the US to do so. This not only means ecologically friendly fertilizer but far fewer waste nutrients in the local water supply. The work their doing is really fascinating and involves some really interesting chemistry. Talking with Arthur was a lot of fun, as he could easily communicate the concepts behind what Rich Earth is doing, as well as the day to day of an operation that collects urine on a community scale. We also touched on a few other sustainable waste management approaches, and how they influenced Arthur's interest in sustainability.

Links;

Rich Earth Institute

Living Machine Waste Water Systems

Humanure Handbook

In this episode, we chat with Jenna Rozelle. Jenna is a  homesteader, professional forager, and member of Back Country Hunters and Anglers. Through all of her work she aims to bring people to a place of greater understanding about the ecosystems they inhabit, and as we discuss in the podcast, brings a sense of art and poetry to these pursuits. Jenna also works as an educator, running wild food walks, and consulting with individuals and restaurants on how to bring more locally gathered wild food into their everyday lives and businesses. We covered a lot of interesting topics, and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Links;

Jenna's Website

Jenna's Outdoors Inspired Poetry

Arthur Haine's Website

Back Country Hunters And Anglers

Boar Cave Painting

In this episode we hear a little bit from my friend Paul Sveum. Paul was my instructor at Jack Mountain Bushcraft School five years ago and has a ton of experience with outdoor living skills, and flyfishing in particular.

Paul is a Registered Maine Guide licensed by the state in the recreation and fishing categories. He has guided extended canoeing, backpacking, and snowshoeing trips in Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Maine in a variety of areas including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, as well as numerous other locations off the beaten path. He has also guided numerous overnight trips focusing on bushcraft, survival, and local naturalist studies around the South shore of Lake Superior. We had a great chat about ecology, and how learning more about the plant and animal life around you makes you a more effective and aware outdoorsperson. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as we enjoyed recording it. 

Full disclosure, Paul and I were joined by his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter for this recording, and she makes a few unexpected appearances.

Links;

Pauls Website/Blog

John Gierach's website

"The Gorrilla Experiment"

This episode features our first returning guest. Mike Clough from the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum is back to talk about the newest edition to the museum's educational animals. There are now live Virginia Opposum's at the museum, and they're part of a pilot program for the state of Vermont, exploring the possibilities of museums and nature centers keeping nonreleasable native mammals for educational purposes. Mike and I talk about the reasoning behind the experiment, how the Opossums ended up in our care, and a whole lot of interesting ecology as well. We also get into the benefits of live animal interactions for education and work going into expanding the museum in the future. It was a great conversation, I hope you enjoy it.

Links;

Southern Vermont Natural History Museum

Blog Post About The Opossums

We're joined today by Mark Lesniak Nora Gordan, two of the first participants in our Friluftsliv Yearlong program in Vermont. Mark and Nora share a little bit about their experiences over the last year as participants in the program, talking about their favorite and least favorite aspects of the course, and reminisce about our time on the Aroostook River in Northern Maine for our final trip of the course. It was a pleasure working with them for the last year, and I couldn't have asked for better, or more patient students to be part of the first yearlong program at our campus in southern Vermont.

For more information about the Friluftsliv program, and our other course offerings, check the links below.

Friluftsliv Program

Winter Open Fire Overnight Documentary

Jack Mountain Bushcraft Podcast

School Of The Forest Website

We're joined today by Andy Hartman, the founder and lead guide of "New Treks" a colorado based outdoor education and guide service for kids and their families in the Denver area. They're particularly focused on helping out families that maybe wouldn't have the resources to recreate outdoors otherwise.

We talk a little bit about how Andy and I met when he was a student on a Jack Mountain Bushcraft Semester, the value of young people getting outdoors early in life, and how important it is for people to have local outdoor experiences, instead of feeling that only remote and "Extreme" locations or experiences have value.

Andy has been a good friend, and occasional guiding colleague of mine for a while now, and it's great to see his expertise and passion getting passed on to young people who might not have the opportunity without his program.

New Treks Website

New Treks Instagram

New Treks Facebook

School Of The Forest Family Week

Jack Mountain Bushcraft Semester

In this episode,  I'm joined by Kyle Lapointe. Kyle is a leading member of the Vermont chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and works as an emergency medical technician in the New England area, working with the DHART (Dartmouth Hitchcock Advance Response Team), as well as living on a working homestead in southern Vermont.
Kyle and I discuss the current goings-on of the Vermont and New England branches of the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers organization. We chat a bit about the projects they have going to maintain and help people more easily enjoy wilderness management areas, the value of finding a community that recreates in the outdoors the same way as you, and a whole lot more.
We recorded this over zoom, while both of us had relatively slow internet connections, so apologies for any issues with the audio.
 
Links:

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers

New England Chapters of BHA

Dhart Program

SOTF's Family Bushcraft Week

We're joined on this episode by the incredible Steve Wood.

Steve works as a zoologist and runs an online entity known as "The Backyard Zoologist" which he uses to educate people all over the world about the vast, complex ecosystem that exists right outside of most people's backdoors. We had a great conversation about that project, how he got into zoology later in life after years of working in health care and social services doing some pretty incredible work with infectious diseases such as the HIV/Aids epidemic, and how that colored his approach to conservation.  We also chat about the value of knowing local ecology, and how it connects us better to the place we live in a tangible, caring way. That approach means that taking care of the land becomes a visceral thing for people, rather than an abstract one, and we could have talked about that topic for hours. Awesome conversation, with a really passionate educator. Hope you enjoy the podcast as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Links;

Backyard Zoology

The Wildlife Blogger Crowd

Connections With Nature Book

School Of The Forest's Family Bushcraft Week

School Of The Forest's Friluftsliv Program

This is the first of a two-part episode in which I'm joined by poet and part-owner of Hedgespoken Press, Tom Hirons. Tom lives in southern England and while not a nature poet, his work is influenced heavily by the natural world and his experiences in it. In the first of the episodes, we talk about how Tom first started writing poetry, the incredible learning experience that being an educator can be, our thoughts about the merits of finding time in nature even if you don't live in "wild" places and the value of spending time in the natural world as a way to ground yourself in this "Mad epoch" as Tom eloquently puts it.

This was an incredibly captivating conversation for me, and I'm glad to be releasing it as a two-part episode, rather than cutting it up into a single shorter one. Look for the second part soon, where we talk about modern rites of passage, the merits of spending structured solo time in nature, and Tom's plans for future guided fasting trips in Wales.  I hope you enjoy the show, and that you'll check out all of Tom and Hedgespoken Press's offerings at the links below.

Tom's Website

"The Worship Of Place" Poem

Hedgespoken Press

The Feral Angels Of Poetry, Tom's online writing, and poetry workshops

In the second half of my conversation with Tom we get into the nitty-gritty of the natural world influencing art, the value of going out and being alone in the wilderness, and how that experience should be framed for greater results. This portion of the conversation references the first half fairly often, so if you haven't listened to the first half I recommend doing that first.

This conversation touched on a lot of topics that are important to SOTF's educational philosophy and it was an absolute pleasure to talk with Tom about his plans for future wilderness fast programs he'll be running. Thanks for listening.


Tom's Website

"The Worship Of Place" Poem

Hedgespoken Press

The Feral Angels Of Poetry, Tom's online writing, and poetry workshops

Trickster Makes This World 

We're joined today by taxidermist, artist, and off-grid homesteader Sarah Bartell.

We chat about how we first crossed paths back in 2015 as part of the "vulture culture" movement online, their work with wolf/dog hybrids, time in Africa on Discovery's "Naked and Afraid", and their work as a taxidermy artist. We had a lot of fun talking about the challenges that come with off-grid living, the joys of being alone outdoors, and a whole lot more. Sarah is a pretty inspiring person and has built a life around their passion for outdoor living and being a part of the cycles of the natural world. If you enjoy the show you should definitely check out their work at the links below, and if you see their stall at any of the markets she frequents in the warmer months make sure to see what's on offer.

Naturepunk (Instagram)

Sarah's Facebook page

School Of The Forest's website