The School Of The Forest Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, I'm joined by a good friend, and former student, Adam Lougee who runs a sister program to SOTF in New Hampshire. Adam was a Student at Jack Mountain in my early years as an instructor there and has since gone on to lead education programs all over New England. His program, First Magnitude is getting ready to hit the ground running with a 40+ acre piece of property in New Hampshire. In this episode, Adam and I get down into the nitty-gritty of challenges to anyone looking to break into this field and talk about the value of community and the myth of the rugged individual (You folks may have noticed a trend with this topic coming up in conversation. We certainly have) and a lot more. Great conversation, hope you enjoy it.

 
First Magnitude Wilderness Programs

First Magnitude Instagram

F.O.R.E.S.T. Program - Vermont Huts Association

Summer Guided Discoveries | Squam Lakes Natural Science Center (nhnature.org)

School Of The Forest Program Calendar

Glad to be back after a short break,

Really excited for this podcast to go live since it'll allow me to announce our latest course offering. I sat down with Rick Swain to talk about his business "The Scroll", a SOLO certified wilderness medicine training program. Rick was a student of ours last year and has helped out on other programs since then. It was a pleasure to talk to him about why his twenty plus years of real-world field experience makes the programs he's offering different than others you might find. Great chat, looking forward to seeing some of you on this program. 

We’re partnering with The Scroll to offer a wilderness first aid certification course. Having wilderness first aid training is an important aspect of spending time in the backcountry, and Rick is a highly trained medical professional with a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with students.

SOTF's Solo Certified Wilderness First Aid Course
 
The Scroll (Ricks Website)

We're joined today by taxidermist, artist, and off-grid homesteader Sarah Bartell.

We chat about how we first crossed paths back in 2015 as part of the "vulture culture" movement online, their work with wolf/dog hybrids, time in Africa on Discovery's "Naked and Afraid", and their work as a taxidermy artist. We had a lot of fun talking about the challenges that come with off-grid living, the joys of being alone outdoors, and a whole lot more. Sarah is a pretty inspiring person and has built a life around their passion for outdoor living and being a part of the cycles of the natural world. If you enjoy the show you should definitely check out their work at the links below, and if you see their stall at any of the markets she frequents in the warmer months make sure to see what's on offer.

Naturepunk (Instagram)

Sarah's Facebook page

School Of The Forest's website

In the second half of my conversation with Tom we get into the nitty-gritty of the natural world influencing art, the value of going out and being alone in the wilderness, and how that experience should be framed for greater results. This portion of the conversation references the first half fairly often, so if you haven't listened to the first half I recommend doing that first.

This conversation touched on a lot of topics that are important to SOTF's educational philosophy and it was an absolute pleasure to talk with Tom about his plans for future wilderness fast programs he'll be running. Thanks for listening.


Tom's Website

"The Worship Of Place" Poem

Hedgespoken Press

The Feral Angels Of Poetry, Tom's online writing, and poetry workshops

Trickster Makes This World 

This is the first of a two-part episode in which I'm joined by poet and part-owner of Hedgespoken Press, Tom Hirons. Tom lives in southern England and while not a nature poet, his work is influenced heavily by the natural world and his experiences in it. In the first of the episodes, we talk about how Tom first started writing poetry, the incredible learning experience that being an educator can be, our thoughts about the merits of finding time in nature even if you don't live in "wild" places and the value of spending time in the natural world as a way to ground yourself in this "Mad epoch" as Tom eloquently puts it.

This was an incredibly captivating conversation for me, and I'm glad to be releasing it as a two-part episode, rather than cutting it up into a single shorter one. Look for the second part soon, where we talk about modern rites of passage, the merits of spending structured solo time in nature, and Tom's plans for future guided fasting trips in Wales.  I hope you enjoy the show, and that you'll check out all of Tom and Hedgespoken Press's offerings at the links below.

Tom's Website

"The Worship Of Place" Poem

Hedgespoken Press

The Feral Angels Of Poetry, Tom's online writing, and poetry workshops

We're joined on this episode by the incredible Steve Wood.

Steve works as a zoologist and runs an online entity known as "The Backyard Zoologist" which he uses to educate people all over the world about the vast, complex ecosystem that exists right outside of most people's backdoors. We had a great conversation about that project, how he got into zoology later in life after years of working in health care and social services doing some pretty incredible work with infectious diseases such as the HIV/Aids epidemic, and how that colored his approach to conservation.  We also chat about the value of knowing local ecology, and how it connects us better to the place we live in a tangible, caring way. That approach means that taking care of the land becomes a visceral thing for people, rather than an abstract one, and we could have talked about that topic for hours. Awesome conversation, with a really passionate educator. Hope you enjoy the podcast as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Links;

Backyard Zoology

The Wildlife Blogger Crowd

Connections With Nature Book

School Of The Forest's Family Bushcraft Week

School Of The Forest's Friluftsliv Program

In this episode,  I'm joined by Kyle Lapointe. Kyle is a leading member of the Vermont chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and works as an emergency medical technician in the New England area, working with the DHART (Dartmouth Hitchcock Advance Response Team), as well as living on a working homestead in southern Vermont.
Kyle and I discuss the current goings-on of the Vermont and New England branches of the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers organization. We chat a bit about the projects they have going to maintain and help people more easily enjoy wilderness management areas, the value of finding a community that recreates in the outdoors the same way as you, and a whole lot more.
We recorded this over zoom, while both of us had relatively slow internet connections, so apologies for any issues with the audio.
 
Links:

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers

New England Chapters of BHA

Dhart Program

SOTF's Family Bushcraft Week

We're joined today by Andy Hartman, the founder and lead guide of "New Treks" a colorado based outdoor education and guide service for kids and their families in the Denver area. They're particularly focused on helping out families that maybe wouldn't have the resources to recreate outdoors otherwise.

We talk a little bit about how Andy and I met when he was a student on a Jack Mountain Bushcraft Semester, the value of young people getting outdoors early in life, and how important it is for people to have local outdoor experiences, instead of feeling that only remote and "Extreme" locations or experiences have value.

Andy has been a good friend, and occasional guiding colleague of mine for a while now, and it's great to see his expertise and passion getting passed on to young people who might not have the opportunity without his program.

New Treks Website

New Treks Instagram

New Treks Facebook

School Of The Forest Family Week

Jack Mountain Bushcraft Semester

We're joined today by Mark Lesniak Nora Gordan, two of the first participants in our Friluftsliv Yearlong program in Vermont. Mark and Nora share a little bit about their experiences over the last year as participants in the program, talking about their favorite and least favorite aspects of the course, and reminisce about our time on the Aroostook River in Northern Maine for our final trip of the course. It was a pleasure working with them for the last year, and I couldn't have asked for better, or more patient students to be part of the first yearlong program at our campus in southern Vermont.

For more information about the Friluftsliv program, and our other course offerings, check the links below.

Friluftsliv Program

Winter Open Fire Overnight Documentary

Jack Mountain Bushcraft Podcast

School Of The Forest Website

This episode features our first returning guest. Mike Clough from the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum is back to talk about the newest edition to the museum's educational animals. There are now live Virginia Opposum's at the museum, and they're part of a pilot program for the state of Vermont, exploring the possibilities of museums and nature centers keeping nonreleasable native mammals for educational purposes. Mike and I talk about the reasoning behind the experiment, how the Opossums ended up in our care, and a whole lot of interesting ecology as well. We also get into the benefits of live animal interactions for education and work going into expanding the museum in the future. It was a great conversation, I hope you enjoy it.

Links;

Southern Vermont Natural History Museum

Blog Post About The Opossums