Nature, woods, survival, awareness, outdoors, reliance, primitive, skills,…..the list could go on and on. These are all words that we see when we are seeking education to help us in our quest to learn more about our surroundings, perhaps even with a desire to learn how to “live off the land.”

From our perspective there are typically two types of people who come looking for outdoor education. The first type of person is probably the most common. You were taught or simply developed a love of hiking, backpacking, birding, camping, etc. The enjoyable experiences you have had grew to the point that you want to challenge yourself, to try new things that you know are out there but have never been able to accomplish. Things like “rubbing sticks together and making fire” sound really cool. The second type of person is the one who intuitively has a desire to connect with their surroundings in a special way. It is probably something that is hard to explain to others isn’t it? You are one of those persons that spends a great deal of time in the outdoors, and you simply want your experiences to be deeper. You want to connect to the trees, to the animals, to the plants around you.

For whatever type of person you are, even if it is not one of those described above, we are certainly glad you found your way to us. Nature Reliance School is the name we chose to present ourselves to you.

At the root of all outdoor activities is nature. There is a common mindset in many people today that is something new, and it is the antithesis of the human approach to nature for several thousand years. That mindset is that nature is something to conquer. As our name suggests our desire is to simply rely upon nature and not conquer it. To work with it not destroy it.

With that said, we do not desire to go too far the other direction either. At Nature Reliance School we feel that our Creator gives us as humans the right to use plants, animals, water, and all that nature is for our use. That right also demands that we recognize and utilize appropriate conservation and stewardship methods in our outdoor activities.

Let us also make sure you understand that some of the skills we teach, are ones we have honed over nearly four decades of living a life close to nature. Some of the skills we share, we may have learned last week. We too are constantly learning and observing in our experiences as well. Nature is a wonderful teacher to rely upon and is good at making the proud, humble again.