Library of Congress Control Number: 2017919356

REF031000 REFERENCE / Survival & Emergency Preparedness
NAT001000 NATURE / ANIMALS, GENERAL
GAM000000 GAMES & ACTIVITIES/GENERAL
SPO030000 SPORTS & RECREATION / Outdoor Skills

Photo credits: Dan McMahill, Betty Litsey, Bard Wrisley, Annalysa Kimball, Vered
Kleinberger, and Susan Warren. A special thank you to Charlie Stone for stellar bird and
squirrel photography.
And last, a special note of gratitude goes out to all the staff at the University of Georgia's
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL), Whit Gibbons, and J.D. Willson, who provided
the excellent snake photos.
Illustrations by Mark Warren.

Is This Book for You?

• If you are a student of Nature on the quest to master the ancient survival skills of the Native Americans, this series of books is your step-by-step guide.
• If you are a teacher who understands the value of experiential education for your students or scouts or outing club, your lesson plans lie within these covers.
• If you are a hiker who wants to carry less gear and become more self-reliant by using what the forest has to offer, these pages will lighten your load.
• If you are an employee at an outdoor venue (private, state or national park; summer camp; Nature center; river, trail, or hunting guide) and you crave more knowledge of your natural surroundings for the sake of teaching clients, your schooling begins here.
• If you yearn for that intimate relationship that the Native Americans enjoyed with Nature - to transcend from visitor to participant in the forest, that life-
  changing journey begins here.
• And especially if you are a parent who seeks the practical and spiritual grounding for your child that comes from time spent in the workshop of Nature, these pages are stepping stones on a pathway of adventures that you and your child can walk together. Quality family time, being at home in Nature, learning the most fundamental skills that humans were meant to use on this planet … you'll find that here.

About the Author

Mark Warren has taught youth and adult classes in survival skills for half a century. In addition to the Secrets of the Forest series, he is the author of Two Winters in a Tipi (2012), Adobe Moon (2017), and Born to the Badge (2018), and Promised Land (2019). Mark lives with his wife, Susan, in the mountains of north Georgia.

What readers are saying

• Excellence and care guide every quiet step Mark Warren makes; to follow him teaches unique, wonderful truths about one’s connection to the Earth and its inhabitants. His keen guidance taught me to harness the strength of wood to create fire, shoot an arrow, strike a target; he showed me to seek understanding, and inspired me to complete my bachelors in mechanical engineering at MIT.
     ~ Rhyse Bendell, Medicine Bow summer camper and student
  
• Mark leads the modern reader along the almost forgotten paths of wood lore, natural medicine, and self-sufficiency. Follow him down these paths to recover what has been lost in a world of digital dystopia, and you’ll discover a renaissance man who lives every single word that he writes.
     ~ Emily Ghiz, baker and Montessori teacher, Charleston, WV
  
• Mark changed my life that season I took classes at Medicine Bow. Not a single day goes by that I don’t think about something learned from him. He was the key to the pivotal point in my life that changed everything.
     ~ James Perkins , Medicine Bow student