Bushcraft Ethics and Spotted Gum Harvesting

[Howling Dingo]

Hey guys this is a short film I made.In bushcraft we talk a lot about what is the best knife or axe.But seldom do you hear anyone talking about using these tools ethically.

I am really angry and upset at some of so called bushcraft videos posted in you tube.Some people seem hell bent on killing trees and destroying there local wild habitats.

I think that wild foods and natural materials should be gathered ethically.The way some "bushcrafter's behave in the wood is little more pure vandalism"Some videos show several 30 year old trees being cut down just to show how good the axe is.There show bark being cut and striped from living tree to demonstrate a survive food.

[jbrown14]

Good points, well stated, and I fully agree with everything you said...now it's time for me to go to bed.

All the best,

Josh

[Tony1948]

Wight on ,agree with you all the way on this pont H-D

[AL...]

With ye all the way! I make Bowls spoons and Catapults all from trees that have been blown down.
I dont take from good strong healthy trees . There is no need.
Look forward to seeing the knife or axe handles sometime in the future.

Cheers
AL

[FishyFolk]

I have no qualms about cutting down a sapling just to make myself a stick to cook a hot dog over the fire with. None at all. And I am probably giving the tree it grows next to a better chance to survive by doing so
Mainly because the forest here is mostly overgrown birch and rowan brush that is not being managed at all. This means that the old cultural landscape is vanishing fast, and it is happening all over Norway
as the smaller farms are being abandoned. The woods are just left out there to rot, and the fields are being taken over by brush. I think I mention it in some of my vids too.

So I hope none of my videos have prompted the OP to start this thread.

I see the trees as a recource. There is no difference in taking a sapling than there is in picking a berry. Its a renewable resourse like anything else. But it all depend on the local environment. I do realise that this is different in England or parts of the US.

No time to watch the video, as I am off to my grandmas 86th birtday party but will when I am home ...

[Howling Dingo]

Okay so it is one thing to thin out a sapling or kill a weed tree.But some of the stuff you see done on you tube is hard to justify....

[FishyFolk]

Well, at least the first video is made in Sweden. Where there is extensive logging. Actually logging is one of the largest industries in the country, and mostly on spruce, which is not the naturarlspecies in most areas. We have some of those plantations here in North Norway as well, and if they are cut down I'll break out the champagne. As where they grow the ground is dead. Nothing else but spruce will grow there, and they do not bellong here in the north at all. They are like rabbits in Australia. There is abn example here at 22:35 into the vid.



The birch looked to be dead standing, but had d to tell as it was winter. Second, that is the season to cut down trees for curing for fire wood. for next winter. But he says nothing about this in his video. We just see a dude who cuts down some trees with his new axe. BTW, I happen to subscribe to him. He is around 16 years old and has some very good vids :-)

The second vid looked more like a waste. But I do not know anything of the area he is in. And we do not know if he had permission to do what he did, or if it was his own land. There could have been a number of circumstances that allowed him to do whatever he did in the video. The best way to know is to fire off a polite question in a non agressive tone. Most people will then respond and tell you the why and how.

I do not bother to explain every move I make in my own videos, either. And I do some stuff that many people around the world think is not ethical. But I conisder it perfectly okay, and it is considered so in my culture. But in England, Australia and the USA you would probably be horrified if you knew :-)

But that is cultural differences. Most Norwegians are quite horrified and think it's barbaric to shoot bunnies with sling shots and air rifles, like they do in England. Yet you can go down to the local super market and buy whale meat for 5£ a kilo...

[Howling Dingo]

If you look at more of that guy in the first vid Northbushcraft..There is more vids of trees just been cut down to make a good vid...

[FishyFolk]

If you look at more of that guy in the first vid Northbushcraft..There is more vids of trees just been cut down to make a good vid...

Mostly spruce that are set to be logged anyway. His entire country is a spruce forest. And it's not like it is an endangered species there. I have not seen him do anything I can fault him for.
If he was cutting down oak or something like that I would worry. But I will aplaud every spruce tree that he moves down. Did you know that fire wood is still the most common heat source in Scandinavian homes?

And still we have more forrest land now that we had in any other time since people came here?

This is not a protected environment, we use our forests. You may not like it, but that is not gonna change anything.

[Howling Dingo]

You neck of the woods Fishy...I did not know about the spruce not being a native tree,I see you point.I still stand by my statement lots of not very ethically sound vids on YT.