Brian Schuch
Brian Schuch has been traveling, living, and teaching wilderness survival skills since 2003. He's taught in many settings including public/private schools, workshops, private residences, camping trips, nature centers, museums, for a documentary, independent contracting and more. He's worked and lived primitively in many environments including the jungles of Costa Rica where he built and resided in a bamboo tree-house for many months. The natural world is a never-ending source of beuaty that drives Brian's passion. His main teaching goal is to show that we can live in an area and increase it's carrying capacity for all life, not just our own. And that if we take without giving back, we may run out of resources. To Brian, the first step is about understanding how the natural world works and our impact on it.
Brian grew up in the suburbs outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. As the last year of high-school was starting, he was exposed to a school that taught wilderness survival skills. From there he went straight to Hawk Circle Earth Mentoring Institute where he took a year-long immersion program and delved heavily in primitive technology. The skills Brian developed taught him how to live with the woods and take care of all his needs and wants. After completing the course he stayed for another year learning and teaching school groups and summer camps. During that time he also worked at a museum to recreate and demonstrate skills of indigenous technology. This included building a bark longhouse, bark canoes, dugout canoes, bows, arrows, 3 sisters gardens, maple sugaring and more.
Brian eventually discarded all possessions other than his clothes. He spent his time traveling, living, and teaching around the country. The skills he honed enabled him to travel light. Brian made anything he needed. His backpack was a small, brain-tanned deer bag. This life change came unexpectedly and gave many surprising gifts: including true freedom, a love for life, a sense of place in the natural world, a better understanding of himself and his limitations and most importantly a realization of how relevant community and family are. He realized you can have everything in the world, but with no one to share it with, it becomes meaningless. Brian often says that the most important value is that purpose your life should further your family and the earth.
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