To be a Womble.

Wombles, for those who aren't old enough or never got to watch it, were these oversized furry critters who picked up litter, and made use of it.

I bet now your thinking, what's that got to do with bushcraft and survival. Well the truth is there is so much trumpeting and drum banging about using natural materials. However you find man made rubbish lying just about everywhere, what were told is use your environment to your advantage, and that rubbish is in your environment.

You'd actually be surprised what can be scavenged, and then repurposed. knowing that might save your life one day. Furthermore your actually doing the environment a favour by clearing up debris. 

Following floods there's a good chance there's somthing washed up that might be of use to you. Things like old gas bottles are often fly tipped, think that might make you a stove. Old paint cans can be cleaned out and make a billy, or a wood gas stove. Sometimes you find old chainsaw blades, resharpen them and add 2 split rings and you've got a chainsaw in a can.

 My personal favourite though is fishing tackle. Anglers often loose, hank or tangle it up. Many waterfoul get killed by it lying around. My answer is harvest it, keep the good stuff, safely dispose of the rest.

But there's a benefit to all this if we remove the rubbish and clear up the environment, we don't just get get free kit, we also promote bushcraft as a serious pastime with good intentions. Bushcraft needs a lot of promotion, but promotion also requires us to promote responsibility. If we move the LNT philosophy to also clearing the rubbish left by others, we make people realise that we aren't there with destructive intentions. We promote looking after nature, the environment and keeping it safe and pleasant for everyone and everything. 

Now there's a few health warnings I have to give. Don't get hurt, cover wounds and make sure your up to date on your jags. 

Be safe, Shug