Modern Wilderness Survival and Primitive Skills Creates Bushcraft

Well-made Pair of Improvised 15-Minute Snowshoes

Bushcraft or Bushcraft Survival is the combination of Modern Wilderness Survival and useful Primitive Survival Techniques. It is a hybrid survival science that emphasizes both ancient knowledge (primitive technology) and the modern science of survival. Bushcraft normally splits skill acquisition between Medium-Term Survival Techniques (4 to 40 Days) and Long-Term Survival Techniques (40 Days Plus). It is a combination of numerous skills including the ability to craft useful tools and equipment from the natural environment along with hunting and gathering skills.

"Bushcraft is about surviving and thriving in the natural environment, and the acquisition of skills and knowledge to do so. Bushcraft skills include; firecraft, tracking, hunting, shelter building, the use of tools such as knives and axes, foraging, hand-carving wood, container construction from natural materials, rope and twine-making, and many others." - Bushcraft Wikipedia
Siting around a Campfire with a crane and pot

The use of the name in Australia and South Africa goes back as far as the 1800s. Outside Canada, the Term “Bushcraft” is often used synonymously with learning both Modern Wilderness Survival skills and camping skills. It is often called by various names including Bushcraft Camping in the UK. Normally useful Bushcraft skills are taught in nearly all survival training courses.

Technically Bushcrafting Skills and Training should be broken down by Region, as the late Mors Kochanski used “Northern Bushcraft” to separate it from the“Southern Bushcraft” of Australia. The teaching of Bushcraft is too broad of a category. One cannot teach Bushcraft, one can only teach the bushcraft skills of a particular area or region of the world.

Article by (, Updated 12th March 2020)
Chief Instructor of the Boreal Wilderness Institute