Home and Calendar
Mission and Staff Bios

Application Form, with our whole schedule listed, Driving Directions, Phone Number, and Email

Faculty Essay

Article on this Page: Naturalist Training: A Doorway by Bill Baroch. Also check out our other articles available in the Ethnobotany series, Survival series, Wildlife series, and Earth Skills Education series.

Naturalist Training: A Doorway

by Bill "Bear Rock" Baroch, M.Ed.

Between every two pine trees is a doorway to a new life. - John Muir

John Muir seems to have been so adept at the art of living in present time, allowing each moment to present itself as a fresh adventure. He was a consummate naturalist, and in his wanderings, he practiced a keen awareness of his surroundings. His adventures through mountains and forests kept him in touch with the elemental forces of life. He distained the encapsulation of artificial environments, preferring "the majesty of mountain storms"; and as an upshot, he lived a life that was rich and full.

What I propose is an alternative, metaphorical, yet appropriate interpretation of Muir's "two pine trees." What I am suggesting is that Naturalist Training can well provide a "doorway" through which we may encounter a new life, or at least a revitalized means of experiencing life.

I think most of us would agree that modern society places an unbalanced emphasis on the logical, rational mind, on routine, and on life lived for the future. Technology and artificial environments tend to deaden our senses and atrophy the biological birthright of our innate awareness. We find ourselves seeking ever wilder and more dramatic forms of stimuli, through which we seek relief from the boredom of the regimented life linked to a clock.

Naturalist skills and the naturalist lifestyle can provide a counterweight to modern imbalances, reawakening in us our inborn awareness of the vitality, mystery and beauty of life, reconnecting us with a lost sense of adventure, a lost sense of self, and a lost sense of deep connection with the greater life that surrounds us.

Naturalist training presents an environment of natural stimuli, and it nurtures our natural gifts of sensory awareness. It takes us out of our safe, comfortable houses and cars, out of our predictable routines, and puts us back in touch with the elemental forces of life. It immerses us in an environment guided by natural rhythms along with rich spontaneity, engaging our full being – body, mind, and spirit.

Tom Brown, Jr. has said that in nature "... the senses are fed, nurtured, become keen." Through the adventures in the raw elements of nature, we can learn to tolerate discomfort, thus learning to be more naturally comfortable. We are guided away from our emphasis on externals, on material goods and their acquisition. We are guided back inside of ourselves to a life lived in the present moment, to a place in which we may find excitement even in the seemingly commonplace because we learn to see the "same old thing" with new awareness.

Through focusing on reawakening our innate sensory awareness, and through developing skills like building fire and shelter, naturalist training leads to a renewed sense of self-confidence and self-reliance. The natural world becomes not a foreboding and darkly mysterious unknown, full of dangers, but an inviting land of adventure, spontaneity and beauty A sense of comfort and intimacy with the elements, trees, insects, and birds is developed, and through this intimacy comes perhaps the most profound benefit of the naturalist lifestyle: respect, fondness, love for the land, for the animals, and for the plants with whom we share our earth.

AS we become grounded in our connection to the land, air and waters, we become profoundly conscious of the flow of energy which knits our world together. Our training makes us notice this flow, and to look deeply into it.; when we come to see intimately that it is the earth that supports us, then each bit of the earth becomes sacred, and we do not allow it to be destroyed. Our sense of compassion deepens to include the whole spectrum of life.

Tom Brown, Jr. has written that his teacher, "Grandfather", spoke of awareness as "... the doorway to the realm of the spirit." Doorways. Openings to the possibility of life lived fully and so very richly. I believe that naturalist training programs, such as those offered by WOLF, can truly provide such openings. We invite you to step through the "two pine trees" John Muir described, and in his words, "... make the acquaintance of the wild garden, and get as close to the heart of the world as you can."

Bill Baroch is a storyteller and Wolf Camp Instructor.

© 2003 Wolf Camp

Employment: We only need instructors with experience running camps and teaching in the field of Earth Skills Education, including skills of the Naturalist, Tracker, Herbalist, Survival Scout, Primitive Artisan and Sustainable Pioneer. Apply to become an instructor through our Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship.