Survival of the Fittest!

New National Award Countryside Management students were getting to know each other this week as they tried to make fire by friction. Friction fire lighting is quite an advanced skill which students would normally have to practice over a long period of time before they master it, but the group soon realised that it was easier to apply the necessary pressure to the drill and work the bow back and forth to provide enough friction to create smoke and eventually a glowing ember.

As well as being a useful teambuilding activity some of our new students may well find the skills of friction fire lighting and bushcraft useful if they progress to careers working as rangers in country parks or on nature reserves where they deal with visitors. There are also options for students to progress into careers in environmental education and countryside recreation where these skills will be equally useful.  If nothing else it will be useful if we run out of matches in the woods in the depths of winter!