Summer Wilderness Survival Village Southern Oregon Coast
Summer Learning Spend One Summer, 7-days a week living in a primitive shelter, fishing, planting, wildcrafting while rediscovering your connection to the natural world.
Summer Wilderness Survival Village
It begins July 1 and ends August 31. You begin by constructing and living in a primitive debris style shelter. We teach wilderness survival skills to be practical in the "what if" situation while also using this knowledge as a means of rediscovering your personal connection with nature. You develop a relationship with shelter, water, fire and food directly tied to the wild.
Bushcraft and Primitive Skills
The study of bushcraft refines what we learn in our wilderness survival training. This includes the arts of making a bow, flintknapping an obsidian blade and tanning hides into leather and buckskin.
Because they will have cultivated a deep relationship with this one piece of Earth, we distinguish the Wilderness Survival Village from the "drop 'em somewhere random" survival trips used by wilderness schools and businesses as a graduation or team building courtesy. Another difference is our Wilderness Survival Village works with an intensive perspective on conservation and caretaking of resources. Compare this to the slap-dash effort of foraging and living that often comes with "emergency mode" survival.
Interestingly enough, when students take the time to cultivate long-term relationships with the skills and land they are learning, they hone the most relevant capabilities in both short (emergency) and long-term (village) survival situation.
Wildlife Tracking
Framing this experience is an in-depth understanding of the art and science of tracking. Through tracking we begin to uncover the layers and mysteries of the natural world. By intensive study of the wildlife around us we learn to think like them, better understanding their methods of survival.
Scholarships or Our Outdoor & Environmental Educator Training Program
We have scholarship or Our Outdoor & Environmental Educator Training Program awards available of up to 10%-50% or tuition for students in need. Due to limited funds of awards we recommend you apply early to increase your chances of acceptance. Submit a scholarship or Our Outdoor & Environmental Educator Training Program application
Register for Summer Wilderness Survival Village
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Tuition & Payment Plans
Tuition includes primitive living arrangements and program food. Plus, course reader materials. Our payment options include...
Summer Term $5,950 (immediate full payment offers a 5% discount)
A $1200 deposit is required to secure acceptance in the program.
You Can Pay in Full Immediate full payment gives you a 5% discount off all tuition. Half of this amount is non-refundable immediately upon payment. We will need 3% courtesy fee for all credit card charges.
You Can Pay With A Plan After the initial deposit, the balance remaining is paid at the beginning of each term attended.
Contact Us to Learn More
Typical Days and Village Rhythm
Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday typically are days where we go about the key duties of maintaining the village. This is also where village residents cross-train skills.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are when key skills instructors come in to teach.
Land and Local Food
About Meals We do our best to have nearly all program foods comprised of almost entirely wild and local resources. This means a large portion of the program is actually wild harvesting and growing from the land. Holding the program on the Oregon Coast greatly improves the bounty available to us. From fishing to seaweed harvest, from crabbing to abundant maritime forests, the sea offers a wealth of living with the land.
Natural food preservation techniques form a core of the program. We begin to create a pantry and larder that can truly feed an entire village. We also yield food from the local permaculture farm this program is held at. Fresh vegetables and fruits will be relative to the season. We become part of the cycle of planting and harvest at the farm. Every season we take a large animal from our own herd to practice traditional forms of butchering and meat preservation.
Since being a hunter-gatherer and horticulturist (a Ranger and a Wilder) is about living with the local diversity of the land, all of our meals could contain a full range of fruits, meats, spices and vegetables. This makes it impossible to accommodate specialised diets such as vegetarianism and other food restrictions for community meals. We will happily accommodate all dietary needs by leaving a key station in our primitive kitchen open for students who find they may require other options. This additional food must be planned, purchased and brought ahead of time by students of their own accord. Community pans will not be distinguished or separated according to diets.
Please Note Since harvest laws limit us and we do not yet have successive yearly cycle to stock up on every staple, we will may occasionally buy staple food with a focus on organic quinoa (a whole protein grain).
All Expenses Paid
This program is truly residential. While there are obvious indulgences we cannot cover such as eating out in a restaurant (it is healthy to treat yourself on a program such as this) or your own travel to and from the site (such as on holidays), your tuition does cover both intensive instruction, program materials, local sustainable food and the site where you live. These could be important factors when comparing that to the costs of other traditional immersion skills programs out there.
