"Whether people like it or not we are still animals with the same needs and instincts as the earliest homo sapiens. I think some primal aspect of ourselves is made very uneasy by how ignorant we are of the means of fulfilling our basic needs. People who live off microwave burritos are totally cut-off from where their food actually comes from, how it's produced, gathered and prepared. I can now wander into the woods with nothing but the clothes on my back and build myself a shelter that will keep me warm in freezing temperatures, and build traps to catch animals, and collect edible plants. I can tan the hides of those animals to make clothing, and use their bones to make knives and fish hooks and various other tools. I'm aware of what my most basic needs are, and I know how to satisfy them. I realize that the likelihood that my survival will ever depend on these skills is slim to none, but that doesn't change the fact that engaging in them puts me in touch with a fundamental element of my humanity that has thus far received little attention."
                                                                - Brian Lacey, ESSP Fall 2004

Spring Semester Overview and Outline

        The focus of the spring Earth Skills Semester Program is on seasonally-appropriate skills. An emphasis on canoeing, including going on a 3-week trip through the most remote country in the the northeastern US, is mixed with a variety of bush lore topics for a well rounded learning experience.

• Week 1: Bushcraft Immersion
• Week 2: Braintanning And Hide Work, Navigation
• Week 3: Fly, Spin And Traditional Fishing
• Week 4: Advanced Bushcraft
• Week 5: Paddle Carving, Whitewater Poling And Paddling Clinic
• Week 6: Basketry, Flintknapping and Advanced Primitive Skills
• Week 7: Northern Maine Canoe Expedition
• Week 8: Northern Maine Canoe Expedition
• Week 9: Northern Maine Canoe Expedition
• Week 10: Review And Independent Projects

Course Components

         The ESSP draws from numerous disciplines to give the student a thorough education. They include:

1. Wilderness Survival - Basic, intermediate and advanced survival.
2. Bushcraft - Making what you need with natural materials from the forest; Shelter design and construction, primitive firelighting, knife and axe use, saw construction, netting, making cordage, knots, etc.
3. Traditional Canoeing - Paddling, poling, lining, portaging, and using traditional gear such as tumplines and wannigans.
4. Nature Lore - Tracking, edible/medicinal wild plants, weather forecasting, bird and mammal studies.
5. Navigation - Barehand (using no modern tools), map and compass, GPS.
6. Traditional Crafts - Making useful items such as bows, arrows, pack frames, canoe paddles, toboggans, snowshoes, etc.
7. Outdoor Cooking - Stone ovens, pot suspension systems, primitive grilling, sourdough baking, reflector ovens, dutch ovens, etc.
8. Outdoor Leadership - Trip preparation and planning, provisioning, safety, leadership behavior, etc.
9. Guide Training - Becoming a professional outdoor leader, managing groups in the woods and on the water.
10. Environmental Education - Key principles of how life works on Earth.
11. Hunting, Fishing and Trapping - There are daily opportunities to harvest fish and game in season with the proper licenses, but no fish and game laws are broken during the course. In past semesters we've trapped for beaver and muskrat, hunted deer, and fished for a variety of species using fly tackle, spin tackle and traditional methods.

Intended Learning Outcomes

        Upon successful completion of the ESSP, students will:

1.  Demonstrate skill proficiency and extensive experience in a wide variety of bushcraft and primitive skills, including fire, shelter, outdoor cooking, tracking, observational weather forecasting, bowmaking and archery, carving, basketry, primitive pottery, cordage and natural bindings, navigation, and the use of the axe, saw, and knife.
2.  Demonstrate knowledge and skill in traditional canoe skills, including paddling, poling, safely running whitewater, portaging, and other related skills.
3.  Make a variety of pieces of traditional gear, including (but not limited to) a canoe paddle, long bow, pack basket.
4.  Have a working knowledge of basic, intermediate, and advanced wilderness survival.
5.  Assemble and maintain a tool kit with which they can make a variety of different crafts.
6.  Navigate by map and compass, and also by using barehand methods.
7.  Build a strong foundation of nature knowledge about the weather, birds, mammals and their tracks, fish, insects, the stars and constellations, and plants.
8.  Have a working knowledge of 100 edible, medicinal, and otherwise useful wild plants.
9.  Document daily progress with individual skills in their logbook.

At the beginning of the course, students are given a much more detailed list of intended learning outcomes consisting of various skills, techniques and background knowledge on a variety of topics.

Bush Lore - What We Teach

About the ESSP

        Practical hard skills. For 99% of human history they've been the core knowledge of our species. In other outdoor programs such hard skills take a backseat to the soft skills of awareness and team building, to the modern high-tech schools of wilderness skills, or to the philosophical and spiritual practices of new age belief systems. Not here. We focus on the tangible, practical hard skills that make up the tool kit of the professional guide and are the difference in a life outdoors.

        The Earth Skills Semester Program was the original semester-length immersion course on traditional wilderness living and travel skills, and remains the leader in the field. Since those early days, our curriculum has come a long way based on spending extensive blocks of time in the bush teaching and guiding and watching what works best. A few imitators have sprung-up in the last few years, but we see imitation as a form of flattery. It hasn't changed the way we do things. Our students still receive intensive, hands-on instruction in bushcraft and nature lore. They learn how to live well in the bush using a few simple tools, the skills of a professional guide, and the traditions of a way of life that's disappearing.

        Earth Skills, by our definition, are the hard skills and knowledge that enabled our species to thrive without modern society's safety net. We use the term synonomously with wilderness living skills, traditional skills, primitive skills, survival skills and bushcraft, but since saying all of these is too much of a mouthful we just call it Earth Skills. We originally called it the Earth Skills Semester Program when we got started because we wanted something that would be easy to say if someone called and had questions. ESSP is much easier than having to say wilderness living, survival, bushcraft... semester over and over again.

        Over the last few years the term Earth Skills has become a catch-all heading for a wide variety of different skills that's been embraced by various groups. For us, it means the subsistence skills that were used across the Earth by non-industrialized people to live in their environment. It does not mean new age (or any other type of) spirituality, or a militaristic or militia group.

        Our students come from all age groups and walks of life. Slightly more than half have been college students, representing such institutions as Brown University, Oxford University, Green Mountain College, Evergreen State College, New York University, Colorado Mountain College, the University of Colorado, Duke University, Plymouth State University, the University of Saskatchewan, Harvey-Mudd College and Antioch New England Graduate School. The remaining students have come to us from a variety of diverse backgrounds.

Evaluation and Certification

        There are no certifications in bushcraft, wilderness survival or primitive skills that are accepted universally. If any school offers a certification, it's likely a result of their marketing department and probably isn't transferable. None are recognized here. I've crossed paths with numerous people who were "certified" in one thing or another, but in the real world were incompetent, incapable of completing some of the most basic tasks. Thus certified doesn't necessarily mean qualified or competent. Neither does how many courses you've attended, regardless of the school or instructor. What you've accomplished and the experience you've accumulated does. We don't want to certify people. Instead, we seek provide training and field experience and let what they accomplish speak for itself. The way we do that is through our logbook and portfolio assessment system. It records what a student has accomplished instead of placing them in competition with their peers. Students keep a daily logbook during the program to record what they've done. These, along with crafts they've made, projects they've worked on, photographs they've taken, and everything else they've done during the program, are assembled into individual student portfolios.

        The portfolio is a factual record what you've done. This way, if someone were to ask if you knew how to start a hand drill fire, instead of saying you took a course on how to do it you could volunteer your logbook and state that you've done it "X" number of times. In this era of people being over-certified and under-qualified, this type of assessment system offers a route back to reality.

Our Educational Philosophy

        Knowledge is power, but knowledge is constructed, not received. It is built incrementally, over time. If teaching were simply telling, then anyone who excelled in a field would be an effective teacher of it. But this transmission model of teaching isn't effective for most learners. Standing in front of someone and telling them what they need to know isn't facilitating learning. Especially when you consider the differences between visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles. We subscribe to the learning model of teaching, where the role of the teacher is to create situations where learning takes place. Students build upon their knowledge daily, and by the end of the experience they've accumulated a storehouse of information and experiences. But the instructor must also make it relevant. It's easy to scoff at friction fire since matches and lighters are so readily available. But remove them from the equation and it's instantly relevant, and the desire to learn the subtleties of the hand drill takes on renewed importance. Our students are actively learning, immersing themselves in the curriculum by necessity. An example of this is how we teach shelter building. You can learn something about a shelter by making one. You can learn more about it by sleeping in it. But to truly know that specific shelter, you need to spend four consecutive nights in it. In this way you're forced to deal with the consequences of shoddy construction or not paying attention to details. Maybe the first night is rough, but it teaches you what you need to do before the second night in order to shore it up and get some sleep. The second night is spent learning some of the subtleties that would make it more comfortable. The third night is fine-tuning it to your specifications, and the fourth night is enjoying the fruits of your labor. If you were to build the same shelter again, you could eliminate the learning curve because you'd know what to do from the outset. That's experiential education.

"Experiential education is the process of actively engaging students in an authentic experience that will have benefits and consequences. Students make discoveries and experiment with knowledge themselves instead of hearing or reading about the experiences of others. Students also reflect on their experiences, thus developing new skills, new attitudes, and new theories or ways of thinking."  (Kraft & Sakofs, 1988)

        In addition to passing on traditional skills, we focus on using them to foster critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, curiosity, and a concern with ethical issues.

        Summed up in a single word, our educational philosophy is this:  CAN.

Housing, Meals, College Credit and Other Information

        Information on housing and meals, as well as other background information, is located on the Earth Skills Education Programs Background Information page. Past students have received college credit for their work in the ESSP. For more information on how to set this up visit the credit information page.

Teaching Assistant Positions

        We have 2 teaching assistant positions each semester open to ESSP graduates. The positions are free, and are a good choice for students wishing to extend their studies and gain a greater depth of knowledge on the course curriculum and learn how to organize and run courses. For more information on our teaching assistant program visit the teaching assistants page.

To Apply to the Earth Skills Semester, Summer and Winter Programs

        Our Earth Skills programs open to anyone, from anywhere, with a strong interest in learning the traditional bushcraft skills of the northern forest. The minimum age for the semester program is 18, while the summer and winter programs is 16. No previous outdoor experience is required or assumed. To apply, go to our registration page.

Get More Information - ESSP Media And Student Work

        To get a better idea of what takes place during the semester, check out these resources:

• Photo albums of past semesters
• Student testimonials
• Student papers, logbooks and field journals
• Slideshow
• Online videos - Jack Mountain Bushcraft Journal episodes 8-16 were shot as a video diary of the fall, 2007 semester course.

Also don't hesitate to contact us anytime with questions. The spring semester is a component of our Earth Skills and Bushcraft Yearlong Immersion Program.

"The benefits of this new awareness are real - I felt them that morning to their fullest when I awoke warm and refreshed, happy as I could ever be."

                                                                - Peter Frost, ESSP Winter 2004. From his journal after spending a winter night without a sleeping bag in a shelter he built and telling time by the moon to gauge how much firewood to use.

JMB&GS • P.O. Box 77 • Ashland, ME 04732 • USA
Phone: (207) 540-7632  •  Email: tim@jackmtn.com

Copyright © 1999-2008 Jack Mountain Bushcraft, LLC - All rights reserved.