At Sumo Survival we really enjoy living and working in the woodlands.
Practicing our bushcraft and outdoor skills in beautiful and unspoiled surrounding is something that we have been fortunate enough to have enjoyed since our early childhood.
Now that the next generation have begun to join us on our adventures, it is something that we want them to enjoy for years to come as well but there is a problem and it is a problem that seems to be country wide… the countryside we enjoyed as children has been trashed and I do mean “trashed”.
Take a walk in a woodland anywhere in the United Kingdom and you will most likely find an abundance of rubbish left by uncaring dog walkers, weekend party campers, bags and packets blown in by the wind from out of town shopping centers, industrial waste dumped in the middle of the night by unscrupulous contractors and the list of what can be seen seems to be endless.
This overwhelming abundance of rubbish is spoiling the experience of outdoors life for the younger generation of bush crafters and, in some cases, putting them exploring their natural surroundings.
The Bushcraft Clean Up
Recently one of our favorite bushcraft locations was trashed by a bunch of drunken teenagers. Not only did they leave dozens of cans, litter and broken bottles all over the once stunning natural woodland, they had also ripped down numerous young saplings for use as fuel for their huge bonfire, hammered nails into anything within their reach (still trying to work out why), hacked living trees with an axe (which was later found jammed solid into a oak tree nearby), spray painted the bark of living trees with obscenities and set up several trip wires for unsuspecting walkers.
Naturally I was furious but what made me quickly ramp up to being extremely angry was the effect it had on my two daughters who, after looking forward to an enjoyable day in the woods, were both now very upset to see the scene of mindless destruction that greeted them.
Tears were rolling down their cheeks as we assessed the damage but despite my assurances that we could clean it all up, I could see that this was a memory that would stay with them for a long time and we decided to we had to do something about this and that is how The Bushcraft Clean Up was born.