bike bushcraft

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hubgearfreak
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by hubgearfreak »

Hypocacculus wrote:Sustainable means that if an entire population decides to do something, the environment can "sustain" it.


really, i'd be amazed if you can find that definition of sustainability anywhere outside your head.

for example - fire engines & ambulances running on veg oil is sustainable, everyone driving on veg oil is not
Hypocacculus
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by Hypocacculus »

hubgearfreak wrote:
Hypocacculus wrote:Sustainable means that if an entire population decides to do something, the environment can "sustain" it.


really, i'd be amazed if you can find that definition of sustainability anywhere outside your head.

for example - fire engines & ambulances running on veg oil is sustainable, everyone driving on veg oil is not


Yet we have a whole population that needs sustaining. What are they supposed to do when there isn't enough to go around?
Lawrie9
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by Lawrie9 »

There is no shortage of blackberries, billberries and loads of other edible stuff. Also If you take a pair of secateurs you can cut poles of willow and hazel and make a shelter using bracken for the roof. With the secateurs you can do a lot of good work such as clearing brambles and helping young trees to get established. There is no shortage of rabbits and grey squirrels and geuss they would make a nice stew. What does annoy me is those tin foil barbecue, beer strew about around old camp fires from people who have watched these bushcraft programmes.
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horizon
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by horizon »

Living off the land or even just wild camping benefits from accumulating materials such as brushwood and stones. Cycle touring is a lightweight affair and precludes carrying stuff that would actually be very useful in the wild. A bicycle would be one such useful item but it might have to be carried like the rest of the stuff.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
Jonty

Re: bike bushcraft

Post by Jonty »

I've noticed more people collecting blackberries this year, and a few of them had bikes. Perhaps it's the recession. There are lots of things which could be harvested free without any significant environmental effects such as rose hips (rose hip syrup) and elderflower (not the berries) which makes a refreshing drink.
Eating grey squirrel would be a great environmental initiative as they have driven our native red squirrel almost to extinction and they eat birds' eggs and fleshlings.
Some restaurants serve them.
For similar reasons I would also extent our diet to include cats.
I thought the definition of sustainability went along the following lines "we don't do anything to meet our needs which compromises the ability of future generations to meet their needs."
Quite woolly I agree but that's intrinsic to the concept.
I've never understood why we eat cows, sheep, goats, chickens and rabbits but not horses, cats and dogs. I suppose it's a cultural thing.
I'd quite happily eat the neighbour's dog if it stopped it from barking. :wink:
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hubgearfreak
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by hubgearfreak »

Hypocacculus wrote:What are they supposed to do when there isn't enough to go around?


the most 'sustainable' thing to do would be to become hunter gatherers. as the OP suggested on an odd weekend basis. rabbits and squirels are both no input and zero food miles.

Jonty wrote:I've never understood why we eat cows, sheep, goats, chickens and rabbits but not horses, cats and dogs.
I'd quite happily eat the neighbour's dog if it stopped it from barking. :wink:


there's a good reason why not to eat carnivores, and that's to do with the biological magnification of trace pollutants. say the carrots that a rabbit eats is 1 part per million mercury. the rabbit over it's life will become 10 ppm, and the fox 100 ppm. if your main food source was foxes, you'd be 1000ppm. round numbers obviously, but you get the idea. i suspect that this is why there's little if any precedent in evolution for the consumption of predators by bigger predators. however, one dog in your lifetime won't hurt, and i feel fairly certain that it would stop it from barking. :wink:
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horizon
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by horizon »

I once read that predators eat herbivores in order to get well, their vegetables. Apparently they start at the stomach and only eat the flesh thereafter. Hmmm.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
tramponabike
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by tramponabike »

On the sustainability point... it should be remembered that fallen wood in various states of decomposition is an essential part of a diverse woodland. It doesn't take many camp fires in an area of wood over a few years to drastically reduce the diversity of species.

Agree about those foil barbaques although I wouldn't expect a self respecting bushcrafter using one. Those shelters often left half built are a mess too. And the poles of willow and hazel should be harvested every 11 years or so. The tree can survive for hundreds of years of that treatment. If an increasing number of people randomly snipped bits off every now and then, they would become bushes. As with much of our interaction with our environment, there is more than meets the eye to sustainable woodland management.
mark a.
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by mark a. »

Cycling isn't really sustainable. If everyone did it all the time we, as a country, would quickly go bankrupt as businesses can't keep doing what they're doing. But it's good to get more people cycling and trying it out at the very least.

Similarly, bushcraft isn't really sustainable. If everyone did it all the time, we'd quickly run out of food and wood to forage. But it's good to get more people bushcrafting and trying it out at the very least.
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CREPELLO
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by CREPELLO »

mark a. wrote:Cycling isn't really sustainable. If everyone did it all the time we, as a country, would quickly go bankrupt as businesses can't keep doing what they're doing. But it's good to get more people cycling and trying it out at the very least.

Similarly, bushcraft isn't really sustainable. If everyone did it all the time, we'd quickly run out of food and wood to forage. But it's good to get more people bushcrafting and trying it out at the very least.

And both those arguments are just like the classic - "if everyone became vegetarian, then what would we do with all the animals (we'd bred for food)"? Spurious and hypothetical. Any action or behaviour done en masse may well be unsustainable. But if it's a trend (and a positive one), it's perfectly sustainable.
mark a.
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by mark a. »

CREPELLO wrote:
mark a. wrote:Cycling isn't really sustainable. If everyone did it all the time we, as a country, would quickly go bankrupt as businesses can't keep doing what they're doing. But it's good to get more people cycling and trying it out at the very least.

Similarly, bushcraft isn't really sustainable. If everyone did it all the time, we'd quickly run out of food and wood to forage. But it's good to get more people bushcrafting and trying it out at the very least.

And both those arguments are just like the classic - "if everyone became vegetarian, then what would we do with all the animals (we'd bred for food)"? Spurious and hypothetical. Any action or behaviour done en masse may well be unsustainable. But if it's a trend (and a positive one), it's perfectly sustainable.


Exactly.
reohn2
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by reohn2 »

Found a nice blueberry bush at the week end :D




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NUKe
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by NUKe »

Lots of people forraging for blackberries in London the other week.
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Edwards
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Re: bike bushcraft

Post by Edwards »

If to many people forage for Blackberries and similar items then there is not enough food items for the wildlife.
Then people start to put out bird food that has lots of food mileage on it. It is the same for wood and all other natural resources. Nature It is about finding a happy balance something humans seem to have lost a long time ago.
One of the reasons we have an increase in birds of prey is the current Rabbit population. So if there are to much weekend Bush craft and that population dips then birds of prey suffer.

The cans of beer and tin foil BBQ lot are not showing any respect for nature and the countryside. I am at a loss to understand how this can be referred to in the Bush craft context.

If we as cyclists want to have the least impact on the fine balance if nature, we have to think about how these things work naturally.
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Jonty

Re: bike bushcraft

Post by Jonty »

mark a. wrote:
CREPELLO wrote:
mark a. wrote:Cycling isn't really sustainable. If everyone did it all the time we, as a country, would quickly go bankrupt as businesses can't keep doing what they're doing. But it's good to get more people cycling and trying it out at the very least.

Similarly, bushcraft isn't really sustainable. If everyone did it all the time, we'd quickly run out of food and wood to forage. But it's good to get more people bushcrafting and trying it out at the very least.

And both those arguments are just like the classic - "if everyone became vegetarian, then what would we do with all the animals (we'd bred for food)"? Spurious and hypothetical. Any action or behaviour done en masse may well be unsustainable. But if it's a trend (and a positive one), it's perfectly sustainable.


Exactly.


Exactly.
jonty
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