Bushcraft can be an incredible hobby, but without somewhere to practice it can become quite a frustrating one, encouraging you to push the boundaries of the law.
During lockdown we opened our South London woodland up for rental, now that our courses are running we can no longer offer this. I therefore wanted to share my knowledge of finding woodlands to use to practice skills.
In England and Wales trespass is a civil office and wild camping is not allowed (without the landowner’s permission) – except for in a few exemptions, and most of these still don’t allow open fires. So presuming you don’t want to constantly be on edge for being accused of trespass, how do you get permission to build your debris shelter, camp out for a few nights on the trot and have an open fire? Don’t forget knife laws too, you could potentially be facing more than a civil case if you’ve been caught on someone’s land using your bushcraft knife. How on earth do you go about gaining permission? Initially it can look like a horrendous obstacle.
The first step is the easy one (yes I did say easy) find out who owns the land.
“Place your pin on the map where you want to find out the owner and for the grand total of £3, less than even an entry level knife, you are given details for the landowner.”
So you’ve got your eye on a patch of woodland that you would love to explore further, but how on earth do you find the landowner? Especially now you can’t even go and have a pint in the local pub and ask questions that way. Simple – The Land Registry’s Title Register. Place your pin on the map where you want to find out the owner and for the grand total of £3, less than even an entry level knife, you are given details for the landowner.
Now comes the harder bit, approaching them and explaining what you want to do.
Think about this carefully, think about it from their perspective as well. Landowners generally don’t want any trouble. They worry about opening themselves up to liability if they agree to let you on their land, so maybe have already drawn up a simple contract that excludes them from this. They often also worry that your activities might encourage other less reputable people following in your footsteps, who at the very least won’t remove all their litter. So explain, before they even have a chance to worry about it what you’ll do to mitigate these risks. Another thing they are often worried about is planning and planners. So do your research, is what you’re doing going to contravene any planning regulations? You’re allowed use land for camping without a licence for 28 days, that’s increased to 56 days till Dec 2021 due to COVID under permitted development.
Landowners don’t (always) get excited about building shelters, cooking food over fires and having a place to escape from the daily grind, so don’t focus on this too much. You’ll be respectful, you’ll leave no trace, you’ll make your presence minimal, you’ll inform them of your arrival and departure (very important if it’s used for shooting), and you won’t sue them!
So you’ve successfully made your enquiry pretty non-taxing for the landowner, all their worries you’ve managed to subdue before they have even had time to develop them. Good work. But they own the land – so what are they going to get from you?
It doesn’t have to be cash, but an exchange is always useful
If you can get access to the woods and be a pair of eyes on the look out for suspicious activity that’s brilliant, but you’ll often have to offer more than this. Could you offer to help maintain the woods, if you have the skills and knowledge to do that? Could you help write a management plan or organise with the Forestry Commission for one to be written? There are lots of grants out there for management plans. Could you do wildlife surveys? Have a look at what the CAP is being replaced by and is there something you could do to make it easier for the landowner to claim those grants?
Again it’s about getting into their head and working out what they will find beneficial. They might be owners of a small amenity woodland and city dwellers and really want to learn some bushcraft skills. The Small Woodland Owners Group has a very active facebook page. Its mix of landowners have a huge range of reasons for owning a woodland, for some it’s all about conservation, for others it’s a wild garden in the countryside, and everything in between.
In terms of explaining what you are planning on doing in the woods it might be worth drawing up a code of practice that you will adhere to. Discuss this with the landowner too, is there something that they would like you to add to the code? Also put a time frame on the agreement, that way if it isn’t working for either party, you know you’re only signed up to it for a year. If it does work, great, just make the agreement again. If it doesn’t, you’re not tied into providing something for access you don’t really use.
Good Luck with your searches and do let us know how you get on. What worked and what didn’t work for you.
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